i'hOM THE OHJ.C-iNAL PIC TURF. BY JT. . Iv
IN TiJi: PGj-'.^KSfllON OF T! . J . U'l 1 .1. 1 ,\V .
TAKKN A'J' THE AC-t C.F : IX'i'Y.

THE

WORKS

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN;

CONTAINING

SEVERAL POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL TRACTS

NOT INCLUDED IN ANY FORMER EDITION,

AND

MANY LETTERS OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE

NOT HITHERTO PUBLISHED ;

WITH

NOTES

AND

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

BY JARED SPARKS

VOLUME II.

BOSTON:
WHITTEMORE, NILES, AND HALL.

MILWAUKIE: A. WHITTEMORE & CO.
1856.

' A 'I

Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and thirty-six, by MILLIARD, GRAY, AKD Co., in the Clerk's Office
of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ANDOVEU:
PRINTED BY AV. F. DKAPEE.

c

-509,

CONTENtS

OF

VOLUME SECOND.

ESSAYS ON RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SUBJECTS
AND THE ECONOMY OF LIFE.

Page.

Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion . . . . \ \S
Rules for a Club established for Mutual Improvement . (J

The Busy Body 13

" " No. 1 14

" " No. II 17

" " No. Ill 19 -

" " No. IV 23 -

" {{ No. V 30

" u No. VIII 38 -

Dialogue between Philocles and Horatio, concerning

Virtue and Pleasure 46 ^

A Second Dialogue between Philocles and Horatio,

concerning Virtue and Pleasure . . . .51 *

Public Men 57 V/

Self-Denial not the Essence of Virtue . . . .63
On the Usefulness of the Mathematics .... 66

On True Happiness 70 *

On Discoveries .73

VI CONTENTS.

Waste of Life 77

Necessary Hints to those that would be rich ... 80
The Way to make Money plenty in every Man's Pocket . 82
Rivalship in Almanac-Making ... ... 83

Rules of Health 86

Advice to a Young Tradesman 87

Plan for saving One Hundred Thousand Pounds . 89

The Way to Wealth ; being a Summary of the Maxims

and Proverbs in Poor Richard's Almanac . 92
Observations on Mayz, or Indian Corn . . . .103
Precautions to be used by those who are about to

undertake a Sea Voyage 106

Toleration in Old England and New England, . . .112

A Parable against Persecution 118

A Parable on Brotherly Love 123

Sketch of an English School 125

Observations relative to the Intentions of the original

Founders of the Academy in Philadelphia . .133
Hints for Consideration respecting the Orphan School-
House in Philadelphia 159

Paper, a Poem . 161

BAGATELLES.

The Levee 164

Proposed New Version of the Bible . . . .166

Apologue 168

To Miss Georgiana Shipley, on the Loss of her Squirrel 170
The Art of procuring Pleasant Dreams . . . .171
The Ephemera, an Emblem of Human Life . . 177

The Whistle 180

A Petition of the Left Hand, to those who have the

Superintendency of Education . . . . 183
The Handsome and Deformed Leg . . . .185

CONTENTS. Vll

Morals of Chess 187

A Tale 192

An Arabian Tale 193

Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout . . .194

To Madame Helvetius, at Auteuil .... 201

To Madame Helvetius 204

An Humble Petition, presented to Madame Helvetius

by her Cats 214

To the Abbe de la Roche, at Auteuil 220

To the Abbe Morellet 222

An Economical Project 227

The Craven-Street Gazette 233

A Letter from China 241

ESSAYS ON GENERAL POLITICS, COMMERCE,
AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

A Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a

Paper Currency ... .... 253

On Government. No. 1 278

" No. II 282

On Freedom of Speech and the Press . . . 285

Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind and

the Peopling of Countries 311 v

Remarks on some of the Foregoing Observations, showing
particularly the Effects which Manners have on
Population 321

Remarks on Judge Foster's Argument in Favor of the

Right of Impressing Seamen 331

Remarks and Facts relative to the American Paper

Money 340

On the Price of Corn, and Management of the Poor 355
On Smuggling, and its Various Species . . . .361

VU1 CONTENTS.

Note respecting Trade and Manufactures . . . 366

On the Laboring Poor 367

Some good Whig Principles 372

Positions to be examined, concerning National Wealth . 373

Plan for Benefiting distant unprovided Countries . . 377

Concerning the Provision made in China against Famine 381

Principles of Trade 383

Reflections on Coin in general, being an Appendix to

the above Essay .•... ...... 409

Notions concerning Trade and Merchants . . . .418

A Thought concerning the Sugar Islands . . . 419

On the Paper Money of the United States of America . 421
Comparison of Great Britain and the United States, in

Regard to the Basis of Credit in the two Countries 426
Reflections on the Augmentation of Wages, which will

be occasioned in Europe by the American

Revolution ... ..... 435

On Luxury, Idleness, and Industry 448

Remarks concerning the Savages of North America . 453
The Internal State of America ; being a true Description

of the Interest and Policy of that vast Continent 461

Information to those who would remove to America 467

On the Criminal Laws and the Practice of Privateering 478

Observations on War 487

On the Elective Franchises, enjoyed by the small

Boroughs in England 489

Sir Charles Wyvill's Answer to the foregoing Paper 492

Militia preferable to Regular Troops .... 494

On sending Felons to America 495

The Retort Courteous 498

An Account of the Supremest Court of Judicature in

Pennsylvania, viz. The Court of the Press . 503

Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks . 513
An Address to the Public ; from the Pennsylvania

Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery,

CONTENTS. IX

and the Relief of Free Negroes unlawfully held in

Bondage 515

On the Slave-Trade 517

SUPPLEMENT.

A Lecture on the Providence of God in the Government

of the World 525

Letter from Anthony Afterwit 532

Letter from Celia Single 536

On Scandal 539

A Case of Casuistry 545

Miscellaneous Observations .... 549

Proposals and Queries for the Consideration of the Junto 551

ESSAYS

ON

AND

THE ECONOMY OF LIFE

ESSAYS

ON

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SUBJECTS

AND THE

ECONOMY OF LIFE

ARTICLES OF BELIEF AND ACTS OF RELIGION.*
PART FIRST.

" Here will I hold. If there 's a power above us,
(And that there is, all nature cries aloud,
Through all her works,) He must delight in virtue;
And that which he delights in must be happy."

ADDISON'S CATO.

FIRST PRINCIPLES.

I BELIEVE there is one supreme, most perfect Being,
author and father of the gods themselves.

For I believe that man is not the most perfect being
but one, but rather that there are many degrees of
beings superior to him.

Also, when I stretch my imagination through and be-
yond our system of planets, beyond the visible fixed
stars themselves, into that space that is every way
infinite, and conceive it filled with suns like ours, each
with a chorus of worlds for ever moving round him ;
then this little ball on which we move, seems, even in

* This paper bears the date of November 20th, 1728, when the author
was twenty-two years old. It purports to be the FIRST PART ; but the
continuation has never been published. — EDITOR.

VOL. II. 1 A

2 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

my narrow imagination, to be almost nothing, and my-
self less than nothing, and of no sort of consequence.

When I think thus, I imagine it great vanity in me
to suppose, that the Supremely Perfect does in the
least regard such an inconsiderable nothing as man ;
more especially, since it is impossible for me to have
any clear idea of that which is infinite and incompre-
hensible, I cannot conceive otherwise, than that he the
Infinite Father expects or requires no worship or praise
from us, but that he is even infinitely above it.

But, since there is in all men something like a natural
principle, which inclines them to DEVOTION, or the
worship of some unseen powder;

And since men are endued with reason superior to all
other animals, that we are in our world acquainted with ;

Therefore I think it seems required of me, and my
duty as a man, to pay divine regards to SOMETHING.

I conceive, then, that the INFINITE has created many
beings or gods, vastly superior to man, who can better
conceive his perfections than we, and return him a
more rational and glorious praise ; as, among men, the
praise of the ignorant or of children is not regarded
by the ingenious painter or architect, who is rather
honored and pleased with the approbation of wise
men and artists.

It may be these created gods are immortal ; or it
may be, that, after many ages, they are changed, and
others supply their places.

Howbeit, I conceive that each of these is exceeding
wise and good, and very powerful ; and that each has
made for himself one glorious sun, attended with a
beautiful and admirable system of planets.

It is that particular wise and good God, who is the
author and owner of our system, that I propose for the
object of my praise and adoration.

MISCELLANEOUS. 3

For I conceive that he has in himself some of those
passions he has planted in us ; and that, since he has
given us reason whereby we are capable of observing
his wisdom in the creation, he is not above caring for
us, being pleased with our praise, and offended when
we slight him, or neglect his glory.

I conceive, for many reasons, that he is a good Be-
ing ; and, as I should be happy to have so wise, good,
and powerful a Being my friend, let me consider in what
manner I shall make myself most acceptable to him.

Next to the praise resulting from and due to his
wisdom, I believe he is pleased and delights in the
happiness of those he has created ; and, since without
virtue a man can have no happiness in this world, I
firmly believe he delights to see me virtuous, because
he is pleased when he sees me happy.

And since he has created many things, which seem
purely designed for the delight of man, I believe he is
not offended, when he sees his children solace them-
selves in any manner of pleasant exercises and innocent
delights ; and I think no pleasure innocent, that is to
man hurtful.

I love him therefore for his goodness, and I adore
him for his wisdom.

Let me not fail, then, to praise my God continu-
ally, for it is his due, and it is all I can return for
his many favors and great goodness to me ; and let
me resolve to be virtuous, that I may be happy, that
I may please him, who is delighted to see me happy.
Amen!

ADORATION.

PREL. Being mindful, that, before I address the
Deity, my soul ought to be calm and serene, free
from passion and perturbation, or otherwise elevated

4 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

with rational joy and pleasure, I ought to use a
countenance that expresses a filial respect, mixed
with a kind of smiling, that signifies inward joy, and
satisfaction, and admiration.

O wise God, my good Father!
Thou beholdest the sincerity of my heart and of my
devotion ; grant me a continuance of thy favor !

1. O Creator, O Father! I believe that thou art good,
and that thou art pleased with the pleasure of thy chil-
dren.— Praised be thy name for ever!

2. By thy power hast thou made the glorious sun,
with his attending worlds ; from the energy of thy
mighty will, they first received [their prodigious] mo-
tion, and by thy wisdom hast thou prescribed the won-
drous laws, by which they move. — Praised be thy
name for ever !

3. By thy wisdom hast thou formed all things ; thou
hast created man, bestowing life and reason, and placed
him hi dignity superior to thy other earthly creatures.
— Praised be thy name for ever !

4. Thy wisdom, thy power, and thy goodness are
everywhere clearly seen ; in the air and in the water,
in the heavens and on the earth ; thou providest for
the various winged fowl, and the innumerable inhab-
itants of the water; thou givest cold and heat, rain
and sunshine, in their season, and to the fruits of the
earth their increase. — Praised be thy name for ever!

5. Thou abhorrest in thy creatures treachery and de-
ceit, malice, revenge, [intemperance,] and every other
hurtful vice ; but thou art a lover of justice and sin-
cerity, of friendship and benevolence, and every virtue ;
thou art my friend, my father, and my benefactor. —
Praised be thy name, O God, for ever ! Amen.

MISCELLANEOUS. 5

[After this, it will not be improper to read part of
some such book as Ray's Wisdom of God in the Crea-
tion, or Blacknwre on the Creation, and the Archbishop
of Cambray's Demonstration of the Being of a God, &c.,
or else spend some minutes in a serious silence, con-
templating on those subjects.]

Then sing

MILTON'S HYMN TO THE CREATOR.

" These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty, thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair ; thyself how wondrous then !
Speak ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,
Angels, for ye behold him, and with songs
And choral symphonies, day without night,
Circle his throne rejoicing ; ye in heaven,
On earth join all ye creatures to extol
Him first, him last, him midst, and without end.

" Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If rather thou belong not to the dawn,
Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere
While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.
Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul,
Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise
In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,
And when high noon hast gain'd, and when thou fall'st.
Moon, that now meet'st the orient sun, now fly'st,
With the fix'd stars, fix'd in their orb that flies ;
And ye five other wandering fires, that move
In mystic dance not without song, resound
His praise, who out of darkness call'd up light.
Air, and ye elements, the eldest birth
Of nature's womb, that in quaternion run
Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix
And nourish all things ; let your ceaseless change
Vary to our great Maker still new praise.
Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise
From hill or steaming lake, dusky or grey,
Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
In honor to the world's great Author rise ;

A*

6 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Whether to deck with clouds the uncolored sky,

Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,

Rising or falling still advance his praise.

His praise, ye winds that from four quarters blow,

Breathe soft or loud ; and wave your tops, ye pines,

With every plant, in sign of worship wave.

Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow,

Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.

Join voices, all ye living souls ; ye birds,

That singing, up to heaven gate ascend,

Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise;

Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk

The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep ;

Witness if I be silent, morn or even,

To hill, or valley, fountain, or fresh shade,

Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise."

[Here follows the reading of some book, or part of
a book, discoursing on and exciting to moral virtue.]

PETITION.

PREL. Inasmuch as by reason of our ignorance we
cannot be certain that many things, which we often hear
mentioned in the petitions of men to the Deity, would
prove real goods, if they were in our possession, and as
I have reason to hope and believe that the goodness of
my heavenly Father will not withhold from me a suita-
ble share of temporal blessings, if by a virtuous and
holy life I conciliate his favor and kindness ; therefore
I presume not to ask such things ; but rather, humbly,
and with a sincere heart, express my earnest desire
that Ke would graciously assist my continual endeavours
and resolutions of eschewing vice and embracing vir-
tue ; which kind of supplications will at the same time
remind me in a solemn manner of my extensive duty.

That I may be preserved from atheism, impiety, and
profaneness ; and, in my addresses to Thee, carefully
avoid irreverence and ostentation, formality and odious
hypocrisy, — Help me, O Father!

MISCELLANEOUS. 7

That I may be loyal to my prince, and faithful to
my country, careful for its good, valiant in its defence,
and obedient to its laws, abhorring treason as much
as tyranny, — Help me, O Father !

That I may to those above me be dutiful, humble,
and submissive ; avoiding pride, disrespect, and con-
tumacy, — Help me, O Father !

That I may to those below me be gracious, conde-
scending, and forgiving, using clemency, protecting in-
nocent distress, avoiding cruelty, harshness, and op-
pression, insolence, and unreasonable severity, — Help
me, O Father!

That I may refrain from calumny and detraction ;
that I may abhor and avoid deceit and envy, fraud,
flattery, and hatred, malice, lying, and ingratitude, —
Help me, O Father!

That I may be sincere in friendship, faithful in trust,
and impartial in judgment, watchful against pride, and
against anger (that momentary madness), — Help me,
O Father!

That I may be just in all my dealings, temperate
in my pleasures, full of candor and ingenuousness, hu-
manity and benevolence, — Help me, O Father !

That I may be grateful to my benefactors, and gen-
erous to my friends, exercising charity and liberality
to the poor, and pity to the miserable, — Help me, O
Father !

That I may possess integrity and evenness of mind,
resolution in difficulties, and fortitude under affliction ;
that I may be punctual in performing my promises,
peaceable and prudent in my behaviour, — Help me,
0 Father!

That I may have tenderness for the weak, and rev-
erent respect for the ancient ; that I may be kind to

8 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

my neighbours, good-natured to my companions, and
hospitable to strangers, — Help me, O Father !

That I may be averse to craft and over-reaching,
abhor extortion, perjury, and every kind of wicked-
ness,— Help me, O Father!

That I may be honest and open-hearted, gentle,
merciful, and good, cheerful in spirit, rejoicing in the
good of others, — Help me, O Father !

That I may have a constant regard to honor and
probity, that I may possess a perfect innocence and a
good conscience, and at length become truly virtuous
and magnanimous, — Help me, good God; help me, O
Father !

And, forasmuch as ingratitude is one of the most
odious of vices, let me not be unmindful gratefully to
acknowledge the favors I receive from Heaven.

THANKS.

For peace and liberty, for food and raiment, for corn,
and wine, and milk, and every kind of healthful nour-
ishment, — Good God, I thank thee !

For the common benefits of air and light ; for use-
ful fire and delicious water, — Good God, I thank thee!

For knowledge, and literature, and every useful art •
for my friends and their prosperity, and for the few-
ness of my enemies, — Good God, I thank .thee !

For all thy innumerable benefits ; for life, and rea-
son, and the use of speech; for health, and joy, and
every pleasant hour, — My good God, I thank thee!

MISCELLANEOUS.

RULES FOR A CLUB
ESTABLISHED FOR MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT.*

PREVIOUS QUESTION, TO BE ANSWERED AT EVERY MEETING.

HAVE you read over these queries this morning, in
order to consider what you might have to offer the
Junto touching any one of them ? viz.

1. Have you met with any thing in the author you
last read, remarkable, or suitable to be communicated
to the Junto? particularly in history, morality, poetry,
physic, travels, mechanic arts, or other parts of know-
ledge.

2. What new story have you lately heard agreeable
for telling in conversation 1

3. Hath any citizen in your knowledge failed in his
business lately, and what have you heard of the cause ?

* These Rides were drawn up in the year 1728, and designed as
general regulations for a Club, called THE JUNTO, consisting of a select
number of Franklin's acquaintances in Philadelphia, whom he had in-
duced to associate and hold weekly meetings for mutual improvement
The plan was to propose and discuss queries on points of morals, politics,
and natural philosophy. "Our debates," says Franklin, "were to be
under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere
spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of
victory ; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opin-
ions, or direct contradiction, were, after some time, made contraband, and
prohibited under small pecuniary penalties." This association produced
all the advantages anticipated from it Forty years after its establish-
ment, it became the basis of the AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, of
which Franklin was the first president, and the published Transactions
of which have contributed largely to the advancement of science and
the diffusion of valuable knowledge in the United States.

When the Philosophical Society was instituted, a book containing many
of the questions discussed by the JUNTO was put into the hands of Dr.
William Smith, who selected from it, and published in his " Eulogium on
Franklin" (p. 13,) the following specimens. — EDITOR.

" Is sound an entity or body ?

" How may the phenomena of vapors be explained ?
VOL. II. 2

10 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

4. Have you lately heard of any citizen's thriving
well, and by what means ?

5. Have you lately heard how any present rich man,
here or elsewhere, got his estate ?

6. Do you know of a fellow citizen, who has lately
done a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation; or
who has lately committed an error, proper for us to
be warned against and avoid ?

7. What unhappy effects of intemperance have you
lately observed or heard ; of imprudence, of passion, or
of any other vice or folly ?

8. What happy effects of temperance, of prudence,
of moderation, or of any other virtue ?

9. Have you or any of your acquaintance been late-
ly sick or wounded? If so, what remedies were used,
and what were their effects ?

10. Whom do you know that are shortly going
voyages or journeys, if one should have occasion to
send by them ?

^' 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 inconsistent with the principles of liberty in a free government,
to punish a man as a libeller, when he speaks the truth ? "

MISCELLANEOUS. 11

11. Do you think of any thing at present, in which
the Junto may be serviceable to mankind, to their
country, to their friends, or to themselves 1

12. Hath any deserving stranger arrived in town
since last meeting, that you have heard of ? And what
have you heard or observed of his character or merits ?
And whether, think you, it lies hi the power of the
Junto to oblige him, or encourage him as he deserves ?

13. Do you know of any deserving young beginner
lately set up, whom it lies in the power of the Junto
any way to encourage 1

14. Have you lately observed any defect in the laws
of your country, of which it would be proper to move
the legislature for an amendment ? Or do you know
of any beneficial law that is wanting ?

15. Have you lately observed any encroachment on
the just liberties of the people ?

16. Hath any body attacked your reputation lately ?
And what can the Junto do towards securing it ?

17. Is there any man whose friendship you want,
and which the Junto, or any of them, can procure for
you 1

18. Have you lately heard any member's character
attacked, and how have you defended it ?

19. Hath any man injured you, from whom it is in
the power of the Junto to procure redress ?

20. In what manner can the Junto, or any of them,
assist you in any of your honorable designs ?

21. Have you any weighty aifair on hand, in which
you think the advice of the Junto may be of service ?

22. What benefits have you lately received from
any man not present ?

23. Is there any difficulty hi matters of opinion, of
justice, and injustice, which you would gladly have
discussed at this time ?

12 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

24. Do you see any thing amiss in the present cus-
toms or proceedings of the Junto, which might be
amended ?

Any person to be qualified [as a member of the
JUNTO], to stand up, and lay his hand upon his breast,
and be asked these questions, viz.

1. Have you any particular disrespect to any present
members 1 Answer. I have not.

2. Do you sincerely declare, that you love mankind
in general, of what profession or religion soever ?
Answer. I do.

3. Do you think any person ought to be harmed in
his body, name, or goods, for mere speculative opin-
ions, or his external way of worship ? Answer. No.

4. Do you love truth for truth's sake, and will you
" endeavour impartially to find and receive it yourself,

and communicate it to others 1 jlnsicer. Yes.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE BUSY-BODY.

AFTER Franklin's return from his first visit to England, he en-
paged in the printing business on his own account at Philadelphia,
and formed the project of setting up a newspaper. There were
at this time two other printers in the city, Keimer and Bradford,
and the latter published a gazette, called The Weekly Mercury,
being the first newspaper printed in Pennsylvania. Having but a
poor opinion of this paper as then conducted, and yet perceiving
that it was 'profitable to the proprietor, Franklin thought there was
a fair opportunity for a successful rivalship. He intended to keep
his design a secret, however, till he should be ready to put it in
execution ; but in the mean time he unguardedly communicated it
to George Webb, a journeyman printer, who applied to him for
employment, and who made haste to convey the news to Keimer.

Stimulated by jealousy, or by a temper ill suited to gain or pre-
serve friends, Keimer immediately resolved, in concert with Webb,
to take advantage of this hint, and issued proposals for publishing
a paper himself. Franklin was piqued at this ungenerous inter-
ference, and he conceived it justifiable by proper means to defeat
Keimer's plan. With this aim he commenced writing a series of
pieces in Bradford's paper, under the title of THE BUSY-BODY,
which were of an amusing cast, and designed to draw the attention
of the public to that paper. He and his friend Breintnal, at the
same time, united their wits in burlesquing and ridiculing Keimer's
proposals. The effect was such as he desired. Keimer set his
paper on foot ; but it was so ill supported, that it languished from
the beginning, and before the end of the year he was glad to sell
it to Franklin for a small consideration^

The Essays of THE BUSY-BODY are curious, as being the earliest
regular compositions, which are known to have come from the pen
of Franklin. They were written at the beginning of his twenty-
third year. The style is marked by the peculiar characteristics,
which prevail in all his subsequent writings ; ease, simplicity, clear-
ness, and a pure English idiom ; and these qualities, indeed, in
which he is everywhere unrivalled, seem to have been scarcely less
VOL. II. B

14 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

a gift of nature than the effect of study. Without any display of
ornament, or labored flights of fancy, his thoughts flow smoothly
onward, and are conveyed in a language so lucid and expressive,
that the reader's mind is never for a moment embarrassed with
obscurity or doubt. In judging of the merits of these essays, in
regard to the topics upon which they turn, and the mode of treating
them, it would be unjust to the author not to keep in mind his
pursuits and habits of life up to the time when they were written,
and the forms of society with which his circumstances had neces-
sarily made him familiar. And it should equally be remembered,
that he did not write for literary fame, nor to win the applause
of refined circles, but merely to amuse himself and effect a tem-
porary purpose.

The first five numbers and the eighth of THE BUSY-BODY are
considered as having been unquestionably written by Franklin.
Whether he wrote more is uncertain. The series was continued
to thirty-two numbers, chiefly if not wholly by Breintnal. — EDITOR.

THE BUSY-BODY. — No. I.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1728-9.

MR. ANDREW BRADFORD,

I DESIGN this to acquaint you, that I, who have
long been one of your courteous readers, have lately
entertained some thought of setting up for an author
myself; not out of the least vanity, I assure you, or
desire of showing my parts, but purely for the good
of my country.

I have often observed with concern, that your Mer-
cury is not always equally entertaining. The delay
of ships expected in, and want of fresh advices from
Europe, make it frequently very dull; and I find the
freezing of our river has the same effect on news as
trade. With more concern have I continually observed
the growing vices and follies of my country-folk ; and,
though reformation is properly the concern of every
man, that is, every one ought to mend one ; yet it is

MISCELLANEOUS. 15

too true in this case, that what is every body's busi-
ness is nobody's business; and the business is done
accordingly. I therefore, upon mature deliberation,
think fit to take nobody's business wholly into my own
hands; and, out of zeal for the public good, design
to erect myself into a kind of censor monim', purpos-
ing, with your allowance, to make use of the Weekly
Mercury as a vehicle in which my remonstrances shall
be conveyed to the world.

I am sensible I have in this particular undertaken
a very unthankful office, and expect little besides my
labor for my pains. Nay, it is probable, I may dis-
please a great number of your readers, who will not
very well like to pay ten shillings a year for being told
of their faults. But, as most people delight in censure
when they themselves are not the objects of it, if any
are offended at my publicly exposing their private vices,
I promise they shall have the satisfaction, in a very
little time, of seeing their good friends and neighbours
in the same circumstances.

However, let the fair sex be assured, that I shall
always treat them and their affairs with the utmost
decency and respect. I intend now and then to dedi-
cate a chapter wholly to their service ; and if my
lectures any way contribute to the embellishment of
their minds, and brightening of their understandings,
without offending their modesty, I doubt not of having
their favor and encouragement.

It is certain, that no country in the world produces
naturally finer spirits than ours; men of genius for
every kind of science, and capable of acquiring to per-
fection every qualification that is in esteem among
mankind. But as few here have the advantage of
good books, for want of which good conversation is
still more scarce, it would doubtless have been very

16 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

acceptable to your readers, if, instead of an old out-of-
date article from Muscovy or Hungary, you had enter-
tained them with some well-chosen extract from a good
author. This I shall sometimes do, when I happen
to have nothing of my own to say that I think of more
consequence. Sometimes I purpose to deliver lec-
tures of morality or philosophy, and (because I am
naturally inclined to be meddling with things that do
not concern me) perhaps I may sometimes talk poli-
tics. And if I can by any means furnish out a weekly
entertainment for the public that will give a rational
diversion, and at the same time be instructive to the
readers, I shall think my leisure hours well employed ;
and if you publish this, I hereby invite all ingenious
gentlemen and others (that approve of such an un-
dertaking) to my assistance and correspondence.

It is like by this time, you have a curiosity to be
acquainted with my name and character. As I do
not aim at public praise, I design to remain concealed ;
and there are such numbers of our family and relations
at this time in the country, that though I have signed
my name at full length, I am not under the least ap-
prehension of being distinguished and discovered by
it. My character, indeed, I would favor you with, but
that I am cautious of praising myself, lest I should be
told my trumpeter's dead; and I cannot find in my
heart at present, to say any thing to my own disad-
vantage.

It is very common with authors, in their first per-
formances, to talk to their readers thus ; " If this meets
with a suitable reception, or, if this should meet with
due encouragement, I shall hereafter publish, &c."
This only manifests the value they put on their own
writings, since they think to frighten the public into
their applause, by threatening, that, unless you approve

MISCELLANEOUS. 17

what they have already wrote, they intend never to
write again ; when perhaps it may not be a pin matter
whether they ever do or no. As I have not observed
the critics to be more favorable on this account, I shall
always avoid saying any thing of the kind ; and con-
clude with telling you, that, if you send me a bottle of
ink and a quire of paper by fiie bearer, you may
depend on hearing further from, Sir, your most humble
servant,

THE BUSY-BODY.

THE BUSY-BODY.— No. II.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1728-9.

All fools have still an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing side.

POPE.

MONSIEUR de la Rochefoucault tells us somewhere
in his Memoirs, that the Prince of Conde delighted
much in ridicule, and used frequently to shut himself
up for half a day together in his chamber, with a
gentleman that was his favorite, purposely to divert
himself with examining what was the foible or ridicu-
lous side of every noted person hi the court. That
gentleman said afterwards in some company, that he
thought nothing was more ridiculous in anybody, than
this same humor in the Prince; and I am somewhat
inclined to be of this opinion. The general tendency
there is among us to this embellishment, which I fear
has too often grossly imposed upon my loving country-
men instead of wit, and the applause it meets with
from a rising generation, fill me with fearful appre-
hensions for the future reputation of my country. A

VOL. II. 3 B*

18 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

young man of modesty (which is the most certain in-
dication of large capacities) is hereby discouraged from
attempting to make any figure in life; his apprehen-
sions of being out-laughed will force him to continue
in a restless obscurity, without having an opportunity
of knowing his own merit himself or discovering it to
the world, rather than venture to oppose himself in a
place where a pun or a sneer shall pass for wit, noise
for reason, and the strength of the argument be judged
by that of the lungs.

Among these witty gentlemen let us take a view of
Ridentius. What a contemptible figure does he make
with his train of paltry admirers ! This wight shall
give himself an hour's diversion with the cock of a
man's hat, the heels of his shoes, an unguarded ex-
pression in his discourse, or even some personal de-
fect ; and the height of his low ambition is to put some
one of the company to the blush, who perhaps must
pay an equal share of the reckoning with himself.
If such a fellow makes laughing the sole end and
purpose of his life, if it is necessary to his constitu-
tion, or if he has a great desire of growing suddenly
fat, let him eat ; let him give public notice where any
dull stupid rogues may get a quart of four-penny for
being laughed at; but it is barbarously unhandsome,
when friends meet for the benefit of conversation and
a proper relaxation from business, that one should be
the butt of the company, and four men made merry
at the cost of the fifth.

How different from this character is that of the
good-natured, gay Eugenius, who never spoke yet but
with a design to divert and please, and who was never
yet baulked in his intention. Eugenius takes more de-
light in applying the wit of his friends, than in being
admired himself; and if any one of the company is so

MISCELLANEOUS. 19

unfortunate as to be touched a little too nearly, he
will make use of some ingenious artifice to turn the
edge of ridicule another way, choosing rather to make
himself a public jest, than be at the pain of seeing
his friend in confusion.

Among the tribe of laughers, I reckon the petty
gentlemen that write satires, and carry them about in
their pockets, reading them themselves in all company
they happen into ; taking an advantage of the ill taste
of the town to make themselves famous for a pack
of paltry, low nonsense, for which they deserve to be
kicked rather. than admired, by all who have the least
tincture of politeness. These I take to be the most
incorrigible of all my readers ; nay, I expect they will
be squibbing at the Busy-Body himself. However, the
only favor he begs of them is this, that if they cannot
control their overbearing itch of scribbling, let him be
attacked in downright biting lyrics; for there is no
satire he dreads half so much as an attempt towards a
panegyric.

THE BUSY-BODY. — No. III.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1728-9.

Non vultus instantis tyranni

Mente quatit solidi, neque Auster,
Dux inquieti turbidus Adrise,
Nee fulminantis raagna Jovis maims.

HOR.

IT is said that the Persians, in their ancient consti-
tution, had public schools in which virtue was taught
as a liberal art or science ; and it is certainly of more
consequence to a man, that he has learnt to govern
his passions in spite of temptation, to be just in his

20 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

dealings, to be temperate in his pleasures, to support
himself with fortitude under his misfortunes, to behave
with prudence in all his affairs, and in every circum-
stance of life ; I say, it is of much more real advantage
to him to be thus qualified, than to be a master of
all the arts and sciences in the world beside.

Virtue alone is sufficient to make a man great,
glorious, and happy. He that is acquainted with
Cato, as I am, cannot help thinking as I do now, and
will acknowledge he deserves the name, without being
honored by it. Cato is a man whom fortune has
placed in the most obscure part of the- country. His
circumstances are such, as only put him above neces-
sit}r, without affording him many superfluities ; yet who
is greater than Cato? I happened but the other day
to be at a house hi town, where, among others, were
met men of the most note in this place. Cato had
business with some of them, and knocked at the door.
The most trifling actions of a man, in my opinion, as
well as the smallest features and lineaments of the face,
give a nice observer some notion of his mind. Me-
thought he rapped in such a peculiar manner, as seem-
ed of itself to express there was one, who deserved as
well as desired admission. He appeared in the plainest
country garb ; his great coat was coarse, and looked
old and threadbare ; his linen was homespun ; his
beard, perhaps, of seven days' growth ; his shoes thick
and heavy ; and every part of his dress corresponding.
Why was this man received with such concurring re-
spect from every person in the room, even from those
who had never known him or seen him before? It
was not an exquisite form of person, or grandeur of
dress, that struck us with admiration.

I believe long habits of virtue have a sensible effect
on the countenance. There was something in the air

MISCELLANEOUS. 21

of his face, that manifested the true greatness of his
mind, which likewise appeared in all he said, and in
every part of his behaviour, obliging us to regard him
with a kind of veneration. His aspect is sweetened
with humanity and benevolence, and at the same tune
emboldened with resolution, equally free from diffident
bashfulness and an unbecoming assurance. The con-
sciousness of his own innate worth and unshaken in-
tegrity renders him calm and undaunted in the pres-
ence of the most great and powerful, and upon the
most extraordinary occasions. His strict justice and
known impartiality make him the arbitrator and decider
of all differences, that arise for many miles around him,
without putting his neighbours to the charge, perplex-
ity, and uncertainty of law-suits. He always speaks
the thing he means, which he is never afraid or
ashamed to do, because he knows he always means
well, and therefore is never obliged to blush, and feel
the confusion of finding himself detected hi the mean-
ness of a falsehood. He never contrives ill against his
neighbours, and therefore is never seen with a lowering,
suspicious aspect. A mixture of innocence and wis-
dom makes him ever seriously cheerful. His generous
hospitality to strangers, according to his ability ; his
goodness, his charity, his courage in the cause of the
oppressed, his fidelity in friendship, his humility, his
honesty and sincerity, his moderation, and his loyalty
to the government ; his piety, his temperance, his love
to mankind, his magnanimity, his public-spiritedness,
and, in fine, his consummate virtue, make him justly
deserve to be esteemed the glory of his country.

" The brave do never shun the light ;

Just are their thoughts, and open are their tempers ;
Freely without disguise they love and hate ;
Still are they found in the fair face of day,
And Heaven and men are judges of their actions."

HOWE.

22 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Who would not rather choose, if it were in his
choice, to merit the above character, than be the rich-
est, the most learned, or the most powerful man in
the province without it?

Almost every man has a strong natural desire of
being valued and esteemed by the rest of his species,
but I am concerned and grieved to see how few fall
into the right and only infallible method of becoming
so. That laudable ambition is too commonly misap-
plied, and often ill employed. Some, to make them-
selves considerable, pursue learning; others grasp at
wealth ; some aim at being thought witty ; and others
are only careful to make the most of a handsome per-
son; but what is wit, or wealth, or form, or learning,
when compared with virtue? It is true, we love the
handsome, we applaud the learned, and we fear the
rich and powerful ; but we even worship and adore the
virtuous. Nor is it strange; since men of virtue are
so rare, so very rare to be found. If we were as in-
dustrious to become good as to make ourselves great,
we should become really great by being good, and
the number of valuable men would be much increased ;
but it is a grand mistake to think of being great with-
out goodness ; and I pronounce it as certain, that there
was never yet a truly great man, that was not at the
same time truly virtuous.

O Cretico! thou sour philosopher! thou cunning
statesman! thou art crafty, but far from being wise.
When wilt thou be esteemed, regarded, and beloved
like Cato? When wilt thou, among thy creatures,
meet with that unfeigned respect and warm good-will,
that all good men have for him? Wilt thou never
understand, that the cringing, mean, submissive de-
portment of thy dependents, is (like the worship paid
by Indians to the Devil) rather through fear of the

MISCELLANEOUS. 23

harm thou mayest do them, than out of gratitude for
the favors they have received of thee ? Thou art not
wholly void of virtue; there are many good things in
thee, and many good actions reported of thee. Be
advised by thy friend. Neglect those musty authors;
let them be covered with dust, and moulder on their
proper shelves ; and do thou apply thyself to a study
much more profitable, the study of mankind and thy-
self.

This is to give notice, that the Busy-Body strictly
forbids all persons, from this tune forward, of what age,
sex, rank, quality, degree, or denomination soever, on
any pretence, to inquire who is the author of this
paper, on pain of his displeasure, (his own near and
dear relations only excepted.)

It is to be observed, that if any bad characters
happen to be drawn in these papers, they mean no
particular person, if they are not particularly applied.

Likewise, that the author is no party-man, but a
general meddler.

N. B. Cretico lives in a neighbouring province.

THE BUSY-BODY. — No. IV.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1723-9.

Ne quid nimis.*

IN my first paper I invited the learned and the in-
genious to join with me in this undertaking, and 1
now repeat that invitation. I would have such gentle-
men take this opportunity (by trying their talent in

Nam id arbitror
Apprime in vita esse utile, ut ne quid nimis.

TERENT.

24 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

writing) of diverting themselves and friends, and im-
proving the taste of the town. And because I would
encourage all wit of our own growth and produce, I
hereby promise, that whoever shall send me a little
essay on some moral or other subject, that is fit for
public view in this manner, (and not basely borrowed
from any other author,) I shall receive it with candor,
and take care to place it to the best advantage. It will
be hard if we cannot muster up in the whole country
a sufficient stock of sense to supply the Busy-Body
at least for a twelvemonth.

For my own part, I have already professed, that I
have the good of my country wholly at heart in this
design, without the least sinister view; my chief pur-
pose being to inculcate the noble principles of virtue,
and deprecate vice of every kind. But, as I know the
mob hate instruction, and the generality would never
read beyond the first line of my lectures, if they were
actually filled with nothing but wholesome precepts
and advice, I must therefore sometimes humor them
in their own way. There are a set of great names in
the province, who are the common objects of popular
dislike. If I can now and then overcome my reluct-
ance, and prevail with myself to satirize a little one of
these gentlemen, the expectation of meeting with such
a gratification will induce many to read me through,
who would otherwise proceed immediately to the
foreign news. As I am very well assured the greatest
men among us have a sincere love for their country,
notwithstanding its ingratitude, and the insinuations of
the envious and malicious to the contrary, so I doubt
not but they will cheerfully tolerate me in the liberty
I design to take for the end above mentioned.

As yet I have but few correspondents, though they
begin now to increase. The following letter, left for

MISCELLANEOUS. 25

me at the printer's, is one of the first I have received,
which I regard the more for that it comes from one of
the fair sex, and because I have myself oftentimes
suffered under the grievance therein complained of.

"TO THE BUSY-BODY.
"SIR,

" You having set yourself up for a censuror morum,
(as I think you call it), which is said to mean a re-
former of manners, I know no person more proper to
be applied to for redress in all the grievances we suffer
from want of manners in some people. You must
know I am a single woman, and keep a shop in this
town for a livelihood. There is a certain neighbour of
mine, who is really agreeable company enough, and
with whom I have had an intimacy of some time stand-
ing ; but of late she makes her visits so exceedingly
often, and stays so very long every visit, that I am
tired out of all patience. I have no manner of time
at all to myself; and you, who seem to be a wise
man, must needs be sensible that every person has
little secrets and privacies, that are not proper to be
exposed even to the nearest friend. Now I cannot
do the least thing in the world, but she must know
about it ; and it is a wonder I have found an oppor-
tunity to write you this letter. My misfortune is, that
I respect her very well, and know not how to disoblige
her so much as to tell her I should be glad to have
less of her company ; for if I should once hint such a
thing, I am afraid she would resent it so as never to
darken my door again.

"But alas, Sir, I have not yet told you half my
affliction. She has two children, that are just big
enough to run about and do pretty mischief; these are
continually along with mamma, either in my room or

VOL. II. 4 C

26 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

shop, if I have ever so many customers or people with
me about business. Sometimes they pull the goods
off my low shelves down to the ground, and perhaps
where one of them has just been making water. My
friend takes up the stuff, and cries, « 0 ! thou little
wicked mischievous rogue ! But, however, it has done
no great damage ; it is only wet a little ; ' and so puts
it upon the shelf again. Sometimes they get to my
cask of nails behind the counter, and divert themselves,
to my great vexation, with mixing my ten-penny, and
eight-penny, and four-penny, together. I endeavour
to conceal my uneasiness as much as possible, and
with a grave look go to sorting them out. She cries,
'Don't thee trouble thyself, neighbour; let them play
a little ; I'll put all to rights before I go.' But things
are never so put to rights, but that I find a great deal
of work to do after they are gone. Thus, Sir, I have
all the trouble and pesterment of children, without the
pleasure of calling them my own; and they are now
so used to being here, that they will be content no-
where else. If she would have been so kind as to
have moderated her visits to ten times a day, and stayed
but half an hour at a time, I should have been con-
tented, and I believe never have given you this trou-
ble. But this very morning they have so tormented
me, that I could bear no longer; for, while the mo-
ther was asking me twenty impertinent questions, the
youngest got to my nails, and with great delight rattled
them by handfuls all over the floor; and the other,
at the same time, made such a terrible din upon the
counter with a hammer, that I grew half distracted.
I was just then about to make myself a new suit of
pinners ; but in the fret and confusion I cut it quite
out of all manner of shape, and utterly spoiled a piece
of the first muslin.

MISCELLANEOUS. 27

" Pray, Sir, tell me what I shall do ; and talk a little
against such unreasonable visiting in your next paper ;
though I would not have her affronted with me for a
great deal, for sincerely I love her and her children,
as well, I think, as a neighbour can, and she buys a
great many things in a year at my shop. But I would
beg her to consider, that she uses me unmercifully,
though I believe it is only for want of thought. But
I have twenty things more to tell you besides all this.
There is a handsome gentleman, that has a mind (I
don't question) to make love to me, but he can't get

the opportunity to O dear ! here she comes again ;

I must conclude, yours, &,c.

" PATIENCE."

Indeed, it is well enough, as it happens, that she
is come to shorten this complaint, which I think is full
long enough already, and probably would otherwise
have been as long again. However, I must confess,
I cannot help pitying my correspondent's case; and,
in her behalf, exhort the visitor to remember and con-
sider the words of the wise man, " Withdraw thy foot
from the house of thy neighbour, lest he grow weary
of thee, and so hate thee." It is, I believe, a nice
thing, and very difficult, to regulate our visits in such
a manner, as never to give offence by coming too
seldom, or too often, or departing too abruptly, or stay-
ing too long. However, in my opinion, it is safest for
most people in a general way, who are unwilling to
disoblige, to visit seldom, and tarry but a little while
in a place, notwithstanding pressing invitations, which
are many times insincere. And though more of your
company should be really desired, yet in this case, too,
much reservedness is a fault more easily excused than
the contrary.

28 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Men are subject to various inconveniences merely
through lack of a small share of courage, which is a
quality very necessary in the common occurrences of
life, as well as in a battle. How many impertinences
do we daily suffer with great uneasiness, because we
have not courage enough to discover our dislike ? And
why may not a man use the boldness and freedom of
telling his friends, that their long visits sometimes in-
commode him ? On this occasion, it may be entertain-
ing to some of my readers, if I acquaint them with
the Turkish manner of entertaining visiters, which I
have from an author of unquestionable veracity ; who
assures us, that even the Turks are not so ignorant
of civility and the arts of endearment, but that they
can practise them with as much exactness as any other
nation, whenever they have a mind to show them-
selves obliging.

"When you visit a person of quality," says he,
"and have talked over your business, or the compli-
ments, or whatever concern brought you thither, he
makes a sign to have things served in for the enter-
tainment, which is generally a little sweetmeat, a dish
of sherbet, and another of coffee ; all which are imme-
diately brought in by the servants, and tendered to all
the guests in order, with the greatest care and awful-
ness imaginable. At last comes the finishing part of
your entertainment, which is, perfuming the beards of
the company; a ceremony which is performed in this
manner. They have for the purpose a small silver
chafing-dish, covered with a lid full of holes, and fixed
upon a handsome plate. In this they put some fresh
coals, and upon them a piece of lignum aloes ; shutting
it up, the smoke immediately ascends with a grateful
odor through the holes of the cover. This smoke is
held under every one's chin, and offered as it were a

MISCELLANEOUS. 29

sacrifice to his beard. The bristly idol soon receives
the reverence done to it, and so greedily takes in and
incorporates the gummy steam, that it retains the savour
of it, and may serve for a nosegay a good while after.

" This ceremony may perhaps seem ridiculous at
first hearing, but it passes among the Turks for a high
gratification. And I will say this in its vindication, that
its design is very wise and useful. For it is understood
to give a civil dismission to the visitants, intimating to
them that the master of the house has business to do,
or some other avocations, that permits them to go away
as soon as they please, and the sooner after this cere-
mony the better. By this means you may, at any
time, without offence, deliver yourself from being de-
tained from your affairs by tedious and unseasonable
visits ; and from being constrained to use that piece
of hypocrisy, so common in the world, of pressing those
to stay longer with you, whom perhaps in your heart
you wish a great way off for having troubled you so
long already."

Thus far my author. For my own part, I have
taken such a fancy to this Turkish custom, that for the
future I shall put something like it in practice. I have
provided a bottle of right French brandy for the men,
and citron-water for the ladies. After I have treated
with a dram, and presented a pinch of my best snuff,
I expect all company will retire, and leave me to pur-
sue my studies for the good of the public.

ADVERTISEMENT.

I give notice, that I am now actually compiling, and
design to publish in a short time, the true history of
the rise, growth, and progress of the renowned Tiff
Club. All persons who are acquainted with any facts,
circumstances, characters, transactions, &,c. which will

c*

30 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

be requisite to the perfecting and embellishment of the
said work, are desired to communicate the same to
the author, and direct their letters to be left with the
printer hereof.

The letter, signed " Would-be-something" is come to
hand.

THE BUSY-BODY. — No. V.

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1728-9.

Vos, o patricius sanguis, quos vivere fas est
Occipiti caeco, posticse occurrite sannae.

PERSIUS.

THIS paper being designed for a terrgMcTevil- doers,
as well as praise to them that da -well, I am lifted up
with secret joy to find, that my undertaking is ap-
proved, and encouraged by the just and good, and
that few are against me but those, who have reason
to fear me.

There are little follies in the behaviour of most men,
which their best friends are too tender to acquaint them
with ; there are little vices and small crimes, which
the law has no regard to or remedy for; there are
likewise great pieces of villany sometimes so craftily
accomplished, and so circumspectly guarded, that the
law can take no hold of the actors. All these things,
and all things of this nature, come within my province
as Censor ; and I am determined not to be negligent of
the trust I have reposed in myself, but resolve to exe-
cute my office diligently and faithfully.

And that all the world may judge with how much
humanity, as well as justice, I shall behave in this
office; and that even my enemies may be convinced
I take no delight to rake into the dunghill lives of

MISCELLANEOUS. 31

vicious men ; and to the end that certain persons may
be a little eased of their fears, and relieved from the
terrible palpitations they have lately felt and suffered,
and do still suffer; I hereby graciously pass an act
of general oblivion, for all offences, crimes, and mis-
demeanors of what kind soever, committed from the
beginning of the year 1681, until the day of the date
of my first paper, and promise only to concern my-
self with such as have been since and shall hereafter
be committed. I shall take no notice who has (here-
tofore) raised a fortune by fraud and oppression, nor
who by deceit and hypocrisy; what woman has been
false to her good husband's bed, nor what man has,
by barbarous usage or neglect, broken the heart of a
faithful wife, and wasted his health and substance in
debauchery ; what base wretch has betrayed his friend,
and sold his honesty for gold, nor what baser wretch
first corrupted him, and then bought the bargain; all
this, and much more of the same kind, I shall forget,
and pass over in silence ; but then it is to be observed,
that I expect and require a sudden and general amend-
ment.

These threatenings of mine I hope will have a good
effect, and, if regarded, may prevent abundance of folly
and wickedness in others, and, at the same time, save
me abundance of trouble ; and, that people may not
flatter themselves with the hopes of concealing their
loose misdemeanors from my knowledge, and in that
view persist in evil-doing, I must acquaint them, that
I have lately entered into an intimacy with the extra-
ordinary person, who some time since wrote me the
following letter ; and who, having a wonderful faculty,
that enables him to discover the most secret iniquity,
is capable of giving me great assistance in my designed
work of reformation.

32 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

"MR. BUSY-BODY,

"I rejoice, Sir, at the opportunity you have given
me to be serviceable to you, and, by your means, to
this province. You must know, that such have been
the circumstances of my life, and such were the mar-
vellous concurrences of my birth, that I have not only
a faculty of discovering the actions of persons, that are
absent or asleep, but even of the devil himself, in many
of his secret workings, in the various shapes, habits,
and names of men and women ; and, having travelled
and conversed much, and met but with a very few of
the same perceptions and qualifications, I can recom-
mend myself to you as the most useful man you can
correspond with. My father's father's father (for we
had no grandfathers in our family) was the same
John Bunyan, that writ that memorable book, The
Pilgrim's Progress, who had, in some degree, a natu-
ral faculty of second sight. This faculty (how derived
to him our family memoirs are not very clear) was
enjoyed by all his descendants, but not by equal tal-
ents. It was very dim hi several of my first cousins,
and probably had been nearly extinct in our particular
branch, had not my father been a traveller. He lived,
in his youthful days, hi New England. There he
married, and there was born my elder brother, who
had so much of this faculty, as to discover witches in
some of their occult performances.

" My parents transporting themselves to Great Brit-
ain, my second brother's birth was in that kingdom.
He shared but a small portion of this virtue, being
only able to discern transactions about the time of, and
for the most part after, their happening. My good
father, who delighted in The Pilgrim's Progress, and
mountainous places, took shipping, with his wife, for
Scotland, and inhabited in the Highlands, where myself

MISCELLANEOUS. 33

was born ; and whether the soil, climate, or astral
influences, of which are preserved divers prognostics,
restored our ancestor's natural faculty of second sight,
in a greater lustre to me, than it had shined in through
several generations, I will not here discuss. But so it
is, that I am possessed largely of it, and design, if you
encourage the proposal, to take this opportunity of
doing good with it, which I question not will be ac-
cepted of in a grateful way by many of your honest
readers, though the discovery of my extraction bodes
me no deference from your great scholars and modern
philosophers. This my father was long ago aware of;
and, lest the name alone should hurt the fortunes of
his children, he, in his shiftings from one country to
another, wisely changed it.

" Sir, I have only this further to say, how I may be
useful to you, and as a reason for my not making my-
self more known in the world. By virtue of this great
gift of nature, second-sightedness, I do continually see
numbers of men, women, and children, of all ranks,
and what they are doing, while I am sitting in my
closet ; which is too great a burden for the mind, and
makes me also conceit, even against reason, that all
this host of people can see and observe me, which
strongly inclines me to solitude, and an obscure living ;
and, on the other hand, it will be an ease to me to
disburthen my thoughts and observations in the way
proposed to you by, Sir, your friend and humble
servant."

I conceal this correspondent's name, in my care for
his life and safety, and cannot but approve his pru-
dence in choosing to live obscurely. I remember the
fate of my poor monkey. He had an ill-natured trick
of grinning and chattering at every thing he saw in
petticoats. My ignorant country neighbours got a

VOL. II. 5

34 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

notion, that pug snarled by instinct at every female who
had lost her virginity. This was no sooner generally
believed, than he was condemned to death ; by whom,
I could never learn, but he was assassinated in the
night, barbarously stabbed and mangled hi a thousand
places, and left hanging dead on one of my gate-posts,
where I found him the next morning.

The Censor observing, that the itch of scribbling
begins to spread exceedingly, and being carefully ten-
der of the reputation of his country in point of wit
and good sense, has determined to take all manner of
writing, in verse or prose, that pretend to either, under
his immediate cognizance ; and accordingly hereby
prohibits the publishing any such for the future, till
they have first passed his examination, and received
his imprimatur ; for which he demands as a fee only
sixpence per sheet.

N. B. He nevertheless permits to be published all
satirical remarks on the Busy-Body, the above prohi-
bition notwithstanding, and without examination, or
requiring the said fees; which indulgence the small
wits in and about this city are advised gratefully to
accept and acknowledge.

The gentleman, who calls himself SHrronio, is di-
rected, on receipt of this, to burn his great book of
Crudities.

P. S. In compassion to that young man, on account
of the great pains he has taken, in consideration of
the character I have just received of him, that he is
really good-natured, and on condition he shows it to
no foreigner or stranger of sense, I have thought fit
to reprieve his said great book of Crudities from the
flames, till further order.

MISCELLANEOUS. 35

Noli me tangere.

I HAD resolved, when I first commenced this design,
on no account to enter into a public dispute with any
man ; for I judged it would be equally unpleasant to
me and my readers, to see this paper filled with con-
tentious wrangling, answers, replies, &e. ; which is a
way of writing that is endless, and, at the same time,
seldom contains any thing that is either edifying or
entertaining. Yet, when such a considerable man as

Mr. finds himself concerned so warmly to accuse

and condemn me, as he has done hi Keimer's last
Instructor, I cannot forbear endeavouring to say some-
thing in my own defence, from one of the worst of
characters that could be given me by a man of worth.
But as I have many things of more consequence to
offer the public, I declare, that I will never, after this
time, take notice of any accusations, not better sup-
ported with truth and reason ; much less may every
little scribbler, that shall attack me, expect an answer
from the Busy-Body.

The sum of the charge delivered against me, either
directly or indirectly, in the said paper, is this. Not to
mention the first weighty sentence concerning vanity
and ill-nature, and the shrewd intimation, that I am with-
out charity, and therefore can have no pretence to reli-
gion, I am represented as guilty of defamation and scan-
dal, the odiousness of which is apparent to every good
man, and the practice of it opposite to Christianity, mo-
rality, and common justice, and, in some cases, so far
below all these, as to be inhuman ; as a blaster of repu-
tations ; as attempting, by a pretence, to screen myself
from the imputation of malice and prejudice ; as using
a weapon, which the wiser and better part of mankind
hold in abhorrence ; and as giving treatment, which

36 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

the wiser and better part of mankind dislike on the
same principles, and for the same reason, as they do
assassination, &.c. ; and all this is inferred and con-
cluded from a character I have wrote in my Num-
ber III.

In order to examine the justice and truth of this
heavy charge, let us recur to that character. And here
we may be surprised to find what a trifle has raised
this mighty clamor and complaint, this grievous accu-
sation ! The worst thing said of the person, in what
is cafled my gross description (be he who he will to
whom my accuser has applied the character of Cretico),
is, that he is a sour philosopher, crafty, but not wise.
Few human characters can be drawn, that will not fit
somebody, in so large a country as this ; but one would
think, supposing I meant Cretico a real person, I had
sufficiently manifested my impartiality, when I said, in
that very paragraph, that Cretico is not without virtue ;
that there are many good things in him, and many
good actions reported of him ; which must be allowed,
in all reason, very much to overbalance in his favor
those worst words, sour-tempered and cunning. Nay,
my very enemy and accuser must have been sensible
of this, when he freely acknowledges, that he has been
seriously considering, and cannot yet determine, which
he would choose to be, the Cato or Cretico of that
paper ; since my Cato is one of the best of characters.
Thus much in my own vindication.

As to the only reasons there given, why I ought
not to continue drawing characters, viz. Why should
any man's picture be published, which he never sat
for ; or his good name taken from him, any more than
his money or possessions, at the arbitrary will of
another, &,c. ? I have but this to answer. The money
or possessions, 1 presume, are nothing to the purpose,

MISCELLANEOUS. 37

since no man can claim a right either to those or a
good name, if he has acted so as to forfeit them. And
are not the public the only judges what share of rep-
utation they think proper to allow any man? Sup-
posing I was capable, and had an inclination to draw
all the good and bad characters in America, why
should a good man be offended with me for drawing
good characters ? And if I draw ill ones, can they fit
any but those that deserve them? And ought any
but such to be concerned that they have their deserts 1
I have as great an aversion and abhorrence for defa-
mation and scandal as any man, and would with the
utmost care avoid being guilty of such base things ;
besides, I am very sensible and certain, that if I should
make use of this paper to defame any person, my
reputation would be sooner hurt by it than his, and
the Busy-Body would quickly become detestable ; be-
cause, in such a case, as is justly observed, the pleas-
ure arising from a tale of wit and novelty soon dies
away in generous and honest minds, and is followed
with a secret grief to see their neighbours calum-
niated.

But if I myself was actually the worst man in the
province, and any one should draw my true character,
would it not be ridiculous in me to say he had defamed
and scandalized me, unless he had added hi a matter
of truth 1 If any thing is meant by asking, why any
man's picture should be published, which he never sat
for, it must be, that we should give no character with-
out the owner's consent. If I discern the wolf dis-
guised in harmless wool, and contriving the destruction
of my neighbour's sheep, must I have his permission
before I am allowed to discover and prevent him ? If
I know a man to be a designing knave, must I ask his
consent to bid my friends beware of him ? If so, then,

VOL. II. D

50X4,

38 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

by the same rule, supposing the Busy-Body had really
merited all his enemy had charged him with, his con-
sent likewise ought to have been obtained before so
terrible an accusation was published against him.

I shall conclude with observing, that hi the last
paragraph save one of the piece now examined, much
ill-nature and some good sense are co-inhabitants (as
he expresses it). The ill-nature appears in his endeav-
ouring to discover satire where I intended no such
thing, but quite the reverse ; the good sense is this,
that drawing too good a character of any one is a re-
fined manner of satire, that may be as injurious to him
as the contrary, by bringing on an examination that
undresses the person, and, in the haste of doing it, he
may happen to be stript of what he really owns and
deserves. As I am Censor, I might punish the first,
but I forgive it. Yet I will not leave the latter un-
rewarded ; but assure my adversary, that in considera-
tion of the merit of those four lines, I am resolved to
forbear injuring him on any account in that refined
manner.

I thank my neighbour P W for his kind

letter.

The lions complained of shall be muzzled.

THE BUSY-BODY.— No. VIII.

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1729.

Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
Auri sacra fames ?

VIRGIL.

of the greatest pleasures an author can have,
is certainly the hearing his works applauded. The

MISCELLANEOUS. 39

hiding from the world our names, while we publish
our thoughts, is so absolutely necessary to this self-
gratification, that I hope my well-wishers will congrat-
ulate me on my escape from the many diligent but
fruitless inquiries, that have of late been made after
me. Every man will own, that an author, as such,
ought to be tried by the merit of his productions only ;
but pride, party, and prejudice at this time run so
very high, that experience shows we form our notions
of a piece by the character of the author. Nay, there
are some very humble politicians in and about this city,
who will ask on which side the writer is, before they
presume to give their opinion of the thing wrote. This
ungenerous way of proceeding I was well aware of
before I published my first speculation, and therefore
concealed my name. And I appeal to the more gen-
erous part of the world, if I have, since I appeared in
the character of the Busy-Body, given an instance of
my siding writh any party more than another, in the
unhappy divisions of my country ; and I have, above
all, this satisfaction in myself, that neither affection,
aversion, nor interest has biassed me to use any par-
tiality towards any man, or set of men ; but whatso-
ever I find nonsensical, ridiculous, or immorally dis-
honest, I have, and shall continue openly to attack,
with the freedom of an honest man and a lover of
my country.

I profess I can hardly contain myself, or preserve
the gravity and dignity, that should attend the cen-
sorial office, when I hear the odd and unaccountable
expositions, that are put upon some of my works,
through the malicious ignorance of some, and the vain
pride of more than ordinary penetration in others ; one
instance of which many of my readers are acquainted
with. A certain gentleman has taken a great deal of

40 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

pains to write a key to the letter in my Number IV.,
wherein he has ingeniously converted a gentle satire
upon tedious and impertinent visitants, into a libel on
some of the government. This I mention only as a
specimen of the taste of the gentleman I am, forsooth,
bound to please in my speculations ; not that I sup-
pose my impartiality will ever be called in question
on that account. Injustices of this nature I could com-
plain of in many instances ; but I am at present di-
verted by the reception of a letter, which, though it
regards me only in my private capacity as an adept,
yet I venture to publish it for the entertainment of
my readers.

To Censor Morum, Esq., Busy-Body General of the
Province of Pennsylvania, and the Counties of New-
castle, Kent, and Sussex upon Delaware.

"HONORABLE SIR,

"I judge by your lucubrations, that you are not
only a lover of truth and equity, but a man of parts
and learning and a master of science ; as such I honor
you. Know, then, most profound Sir, that I have,
from my youth up, been a very indefatigable student
in and admirer of that divine science, astrology. I
have read over Scot, Albertus Magnus, and Cornelius
Agrippa, above three hundred times ; and was in
hopes, by my knowledge and industry, to gain enough
to have recompensed me for my money expended and
time lost in the pursuit of this learning. You cannot
be ignorant, Sir, (for }^our intimate second-sighted
correspondent knows all things) that there are large
sums of money hidden under ground in divers places
about this town, and in many parts of the country ;
but, alas, Sir, notwithstanding I have used all the

MISCELLANEOUS. 41

means laid down in the immortal authors before
mentioned, and when they failed, the ingenious Mr.
P — d — 1, with his mercurial wand and magnet, I have
still failed in my purpose. This therefore I send, to
propose and desire an acquaintance with you ; and I
do not doubt, notwithstanding my repeated ill fortune,
but we may be exceedingly serviceable to each other
in our discoveries ; and that if we use our united en-
deavours, the time will come when the Busy-Body,
his second- sighted correspondent, and your very hum-
ble servant, will be three of the richest men in the
province. And then, Sir, what may we not do? A
word to the wise is sufficient. I conclude, with all
demonstrable respect, yours and Urania's votary,

" TITAN PLEIADES."*

* Titan Pleiades was not the only man in the colonies, who had faith
in the virtues of the Divining Rod. The following extract will show that
there were persons of intelligence and high official rank, who could solve
their doubts only by assenting to its marvellous properties. The passage
is taken from a manuscript letter, written by Mr. Peter Oliver, (for many
years Chief Justice of Massachusetts,) to the Reverend Jared Eliot, of
Killingworth in Connecticut, a man much devoted to philosophical stud-
ies, and an intimate friend and correspondent of Dr. Franklin.

" For the present I desist from experiments in natural philosophy," said
Chief Justice Oliver, " and perhaps shall not displease you by relating an
experiment in what I call Preternatural Philosophy. It is by what is
called the Virgvla Divinatoria, long since exploded. Two or three per-
sons have lately been found in Middleborough, and, I suppose, may be
found elsewhere, who, by holding a twig of a tree (with some prepared
matters in it) in their hands, can find copper, silver, or gold, either in the
mine or in substance. When I first heard the fact I disbelieved it, as
doubtless you will take the same liberty on my relating it ; but at last I
was induced to make the experiment critically, which exceeded what
I had heard. The person holds the twig by its two branches in both
hands, and grasps them close, with the upper part erect If any metal or
mine is nigh, its fibres, though never so fast held in the hand, will twist
till it points to the object ; and if the metal or mine is under, it will twist
to a perpendicular situation. I have seen it point to a single dollar under
ground, at sixty or seventy feet distance ; and to a quantity of silver at a
mile distance ; and, what is more remarkable, when it is in motion to its
VOL. II. 6 D *

42 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

In :he evening, after I had received this letter, I
made a visit to my second-sighted friend, and com-
municated to him the proposal. When he had read
it, he assured me, that, to his certain knowledge, there
is not at this time so much as one ounce of silver or
gold hid under ground in any part of this province ; for
that the late and present scarcity of money had obliged
those, who were living, and knew where they had
formerly hid any, to take it up, and use it in their own
necessary affairs ; and as to all the rest, which was
buried by pirates and others hi old times, who were
never like to come for it, he himself had dug it all
up and applied it to charitable uses; and this he de-
sired me to publish for the general good. For, as he
acquainted me, there are among us great numbers of
honest artificers and laboring people, who, fed with a
vain hope of growing suddenly rich, neglect their busi-
ness, almost to the ruining of themselves and families,
and voluntarily endure abundance of fatigue in a fruit-
less search after imaginary hidden treasure. They
wander through the woods and bushes by day, to dis-
cover the marks and signs ; at midnight they repair to
the hopeful spots with spades and pickaxes ; full of
expectation, they labor violently, trembling at the same
time in every joint, through fear of certain malicious
demons, who are said to haunt and guard such places.
At length a mighty hole is dug, and perhaps several
cart-loads of earth thrown out; but, alas, no keg or
iron pot is found ! No seaman's chest crammed with

object, upon the person's closing his eyes, it will make a full stop, but, if the
eyes are turned from the twig and open, it will continue its motion. It is
owing to what I call the idiosyncracy of the person's body, who holds the
twig, for I believe there is not one in five hundred in whose hands it will
move. I am apt to think it will occasion as much speculation as elec-
tricity, and I believe will tend to public benefit." — Middltborougli, March
31st, 1756. — EDITOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 43

Spanish pistoles, or weighty pieces of eight! Then
they conclude, that, through some mistake in the pro-
cedure, some rash word spoke, or some rule of art
neglected, the guardian spirit had power to sink it
deeper into the earth, and convey it out of their reach.
Yet, when a man is once thus infatuated, he is so far
from being discouraged by ill success, that he is rather
animated to double his industry, and will try again and
again in a hundred different places, in hopes at last
of meeting with some lucky hit, that shall at once
sufficiently reward him for all his expense of time and
labor.

This odd humor of digging for money, through a
belief that much has been hid by pirates formerly
frequenting the river, has for several years been mighty
prevalent among us ; insomuch that you can hardly
walk half a mile out of the town on any side, with-
out observing several pits dug with that design, and
perhaps some lately opened. Men, otherwise of very
good sense, have been drawn into this practice through
an overweening desire of sudden wealth, and an easy
credulity of what they so earnestly wished might be
true ; while the rational and almost certain methods
of acquiring riches by industry and frugality are neg-
lected or forgotten. There seems to be some peculiar
charm in the conceit of finding money ; and if the
sands of Schuylkill were so much mixed with small
grains of gold, that a man might in a day's time, with
care and application, get together to the value of half a
crown, I make no question but we should find several
people employed there, that can with ease earn five
shillings a day at their proper trades.

Many are the idle stories told of the private success
of some people, by which others are encouraged to
proceed ; and the astrologers, with whom the country

44 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

swarms at this time, are either in the belief of these
things themselves, or find their advantage in persuading
others to believe them ; for they are often consulted
about the critical tunes for digging, the methods of
laying the spirit, and the like whimseys, which renders
them very necessary to, and very much caressed by,
the poor deluded money-hunters.

There is certainly something very bewitching in the
pursuit after mines of gold and silver and other valu-
able metals, and many have been ruined by it. A sea-
captain of my acquaintance used to blame the English
for envying Spain their mines of silver, and too much
despising or overlooking the advantages of their own
industry and manufactures. "For my part," says he,
" I esteem the Banks of Newfoundland to be a more
valuable possession than the mountains of Potosi ; and,
when I have been there on the fishing account, have
looked upon every cod pulled up into the vessel as a
certain quantity of silver ore, which required only carry-
ing to the next Spanish port to be coined into pieces
of eight ; not to mention the national profit of fitting
out and employing such a number of ships and sea-
men."

Let honest Peter Buckram, who has long without
success been a searcher after hidden money, reflect
on this, and be reclaimed from that unaccountable folly.
Let him consider, that every stitch he takes, when he
is on his shopboard, is picking up part of a grain of
gold, that will in a few days' time amount to a pistole ;
and let Faber think tjie same of every nail he drives,
or every stroke with his plane. Such thoughts may
make them industrious, and, in consequence, in time
they may be wealthy. But how absurd is it to neglect
a certain profit for such a ridiculous whimsey ; to spend
whole days at the George, in company with an idle

MISCELLANEOUS. 45

pretender to astrology, contriving schemes to discover
what was never hidden, and forgetful how carelessly
business is managed at home in their absence ; to leave
their wives and a warm bed at midnight (no matter
if it rain, hail, snow, or blow a hurricane, provided
that be the critical hour), and fatigue themselves with
the violent exercise of digging for what they shall
never find, and perhaps getting a cold that may cost
their lives, or at least disordering themselves so as to
be fit for no business beside for some days after.
Surely this is nothing less than the most egregious
folly and madness.

I shall conclude with the words of my discreet
friend Agricola, of Chester county, when he gave his
son a good plantation. "My son," said he, "I give
thee now a valuable parcel of land ; I assure thee I
have found a considerable quantity of gold by digging
there ; thee mayst do the same ; but thee must care-
fully observe this, Never to dig more than plough-deep."

46 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN PHILOCLES AND HORATIO, MEET-
ING ACCIDENTALLY IN THE FIELDS, CONCERNING VIR-
TUE AND PLEASURE.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, JUNE 23, 1730.

Philocles. My friend Horatio! I am very glad to
see you. Prithee, how came such a man as you alone ?
And musing too 1 What misfortune in your pleasures
has sent you to philosophy for relief?

Horatio. You guess very right, my dear Philocles ;
we pleasure-hunters are never without them ; and yet,
so enchanting is the game, we cannot quit the chase.
How calm and undisturbed is your life ! How free from
present embarrassments and future cares ! I know
you love me, and look with compassion upon my con-
duct ; show me then the path which leads up to that
constant and invariable good, which I have heard you
so beautifully describe, and which you seem so fully
to possess.

Phil. There are few men in the world I value more
than you, Horatio ; for, amidst all your foibles and
painful pursuits of pleasure, I have oft observed in you
an honest heart, and a mind strongly bent towards
virtue. I wish, from my soul, I could assist you in
acting vsteadily the part of a reasonable creature ; for,
if you would not think it a paradox, I should tell you
I love you better than you do yourself.

Hor. A paradox indeed ! Better than I do myself !
When I love my dear self so well, that I love every
thing else for my own sake.

Phil. He only loves himself well, who rightly and
judiciously loves himself.

Hor. What do you mean by that, Philocles ? You

MISCELLANEOUS. 47

men of reason and virtue are always dealing in mys-
teries, though you laugh at them when the church
makes them. I think he loves himself very well and
very judiciously too, as you call it, who allows himself
to do whatever he pleases.

Phil. What, though it be to the ruin and destruction
of that very self which he loves so well 1 That man
alone loves himself rightly, who procures the greatest
possible good to himself through the whole of his ex-
istence; and so pursues pleasure as not to give for
it more than it is worth.

HOT. That depends all upon opinion. Who shall
judge what the pleasure is worth ? Suppose a pleasing
form of the fair kind strikes me so much, that I can
enjoy nothing without the enjoyment of that one ob-
ject ; or, that pleasure in general is so favorite a mis-
tress, that I \vill take her as men do their wives, for
better, for worse; minding no consequences, nor re-
garding what is to come. Why should I not do it ?

Phil. Suppose, Horatio, that a friend of yours entered
into the world about two-and-twenty, with a healthful
vigorous body, and a fair plentiful estate of about five
hundred pounds a year ; and yet, before he had reach-
ed thirty, should, by following his own pleasures, and
not as you duly regarding consequences, have run out
of his estate, and disabled his body to that degree,
that he had neither the means nor capacity of enjoy-
ment left, nor any thing else to do but wisely shoot
himself through the head to be at rest; what would
you say to this unfortunate man's conduct? Is it wrong
by opinion or fancy only 1 Or is there really a right and
wrong in the case? Is not one opinion of life and
action juster than another? Or one sort of conduct
preferable to another? Or does that miserable son of
pleasure appear as reasonable and lovely a being in

48 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

your eyes, as a man who, by prudently and rightly
gratifying his natural passions, had preserved his body
in full health, and his estate entire, and enjoyed both
to a good old age, and then died with a thankful heart
for the good things he had received, and with an
entire submission to the will of Him who first called
him into being ? Say, Horatio, are these men equally
wise and happy ? And is every thing to be measured
by mere fancy and opinion, without considering whether
that fancy or opinion be right ?

Har. Hardly so neither, I think; yet sure the wise
and good Author of nature could never make us to
plague us. He could never give us passions, on pur-
pose to subdue and conquer them; nor produce this
self of mine, or any other self, only that it may be
denied; for that is denying the works of the great
Creator himself. Self-denial, then, which is what I
suppose you mean by prudence, seems to me not only
absurd, but very dishonorable to that Supreme Wisdom
and Goodness, which is supposed to make so ridiculous
and contradictory a creature, that must be always
fighting with himself in order to be at rest, and under-
go voluntary hardships in order to be happy. Are we
created sick, only to be commanded to be sound ? Are
we born under one law, our passions, and yet bound
to another, that of reason ? Answer me, Philocles, for
I am warmly concerned for the honor of Nature, the
mother of us all.

Phil. I find, Horatio, my two characters have af-
frighted you ; so that you decline the trial of what is
good, by reason ; and had rather make a bold attack
upon Providence, the usual way of you gentlemen of
fashion, who, when by living in defiance of the eternal
rules of reason, you have plunged yourselves into a
thousand difficulties, endeavour to make yourselves

MISCELLANEOUS. 49

easy by throwing the burden upon Nature. You are,
Horatio, in a very miserable condition indeed ; for you
say you cannot be happy if you control your passions ;
and you feel yourself miserable by an unrestrained gra-
tification of them ; so that here is evil, irremediable
evil, either way.

Hor. That is very true ; at least it appears so to me.
Pray what have you to say, Philocles, in honor of
Nature or Providence ? Methinks I am in pain for her.
How do you rescue her, poor lady ?

Phil. This, my dear Horatio, I have to say; that
what you find fault with and clamor against, as the
most terrible evil in the world, self-denial, is really the
greatest good, and the highest self-gratification. If, in-
deed, you use the word in the sense of some weak
moralists, and much weaker divines, you will have
just reason to laugh at it ; but if you take it, as under-
stood by philosophers and men of sense, you will pres-
ently see 'her charms, and fly to her embraces, not-
withstanding her demure looks, as absolutely necessary
to produce even your own darling sole good, pleasure ;
for self-denial is never a duty, or a reasonable action,
but as it is a natural means of procuring more pleasure
than you can taste without it ; so that this grave, saint-
like guide to happiness, as rough and dreadful as she
has been made to appear, is in truth the kindest and
most beautiful mistress in the world.

Hor. Prithee, Philocles, do not wrap yourself in
allegory and metaphor. Why do you tease me thus ?
I long to be satisfied, what is this philosophical self-
denial, the necessity and reason of it ; I am impatient,
and all on fire. Explain, therefore, in your beautiful,
natural, easy way of reasoning, what I am to under-
stand by this grave lady of yours, with so forbidding,
downcast looks, and yet so absolutely necessary to

VOL. II. 7 E

50 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

my pleasures. I stand to embrace her, for, you know,
pleasure I court under all shapes and forms.

Phil. Attend, then, and you will see. the reason of
this philosophical self-denial. There can be no abso-
lute perfection in any creature ; because every creature
is derived from something of a superior existence, and
dependent on that source for its own existence. No
created being can be all-wise, all-good, and all-power-
ful, because his powers and capacities are finite and
limited ; consequently whatever is created must, in its
own nature, be subject to error, irregularity, excess,
and imperfectness. All intelligent, rational agents find
hi themselves a power of judging what kind of beings
they are, what actions are proper to preserve them,
' and what consequences will generally attend them,
what pleasures they are for, and to what degree their
natures are capable of receiving them. All we have
to do then, Horatio, is to consider, when we are sur-
prised with a new object, and passionately desire to
enjoy it, whether the gratifying that passion be con-
sistent with the gratifying other passions and appetites,
equally if not more necessary to us ; and whether it
consists with our happiness to-morrow, next week, or
next year ; for, as we all wish to live, we are obliged
by reason to take as much care for our future, as our
present happiness, and not build one upon the ruins
of the other. But if, through the strength and power
of a present passion, and through want of attending
to consequences, we have erred and exceeded the
bounds which nature and reason have set us ; we are
then, for our own sakes, to refrain, or deny ourselves a
present momentary pleasure for a future, constant, and
durable one. So that this philosophical self-denial is
only refusing to do an action which you strongly desire,
because it is inconsistent with health, convenience, or

MISCELLANEOUS. 51

circumstances in the world ; or, in other words, because
it would cost you more than it was worth. You would
lose by it, as a man of pleasure. Thus you see, Ho-
ratio, that self-denial is not only the most reasonable,
but the most pleasant thing in the world.

Hor. We are just coming into town, so that we
cannot pursue this argument any farther at present;
you have said a great deal for nature, Providence, and
reason; happy are they who can follow such divine
guides.

Phil. Horatio, good night ; I wish you wise in your
pleasures.

Hor. I wish, Philocles, I could be as wise in my
pleasures as you are pleasantly wise ; your wisdom is
agreeable, your virtue is amiable, and your philosophy
the highest luxury. Adieu, thou enchanting reasoner !

A SECOND DIALOGUE BETWEEN PHILOCLES AND HORA-
TIO, CONCERNING VIRTUE AND PLEASURE.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, JULY 9, 1730.

Philocles. Dear Horatio, where hast thou been these
three or four months'? What new adventures have
you fallen upon since I met you in these delightful,
all-inspiring fields, and wondered how such a pleasure-
hunter as you could bear being alone 1

Horatio. O Philocles, thou best of friends, because
a friend to reason and virtue, I am very glad to see
you. Do not you remember, I told you then, that
some misfortunes in my pleasures had sent me to
philosophy for relief? But now I do assure you I can,
without a sigh, leave other pleasures for those of phi-
losophy ; I can hear the word reason mentioned, and

52 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

virtue praised, without laughing. Do not I bid fair for
conversion, think you ?

Phil. Very fair, Horatio; for I remember the time
when reason, virtue, and pleasure, were the same thing
with you; when you counted nothing good but what
pleased, nor any thing reasonable but what you gained
by ; when you made a jest of mind, and the pleasures
of reflection, and elegantly placed your sole happiness,
like the rest of the animal creation, in the gratification
of sense.

Hor. I did so; but in our last conversation, when
walking upon the brow of this hill, and looking down
on that broad, rapid river, and yon widely-extended,
beautifully- varied plain, you taught me another doc-
trine ; you showed me, that self-denial, which above
all things I abhorred, was really the greatest good, and
the highest self-gratification, and absolutely necessary
to produce even my own darling sole good, pleasure.

Phil. True; I told you that self-denial was never
a duty, but when it was a natural means of procuring
more pleasure than we could taste without it ; that as
we all strongly desire to live, and to live only to enjoy,
we should take as much care about our future as our
present happiness, and not build one upon the ruins
of the other; that we should look to the end, and
regard consequences ; and if, through want of attention
we had erred, and exceeded the bounds which nature
had set us, we were then obliged, for our own sakes,
to refrain or deny ourselves a present momentary
pleasure for a future, constant, and durable good.

Hor. You have shown, Philocles, that self-denial,
which weak or interested men have rendered the most
forbidding, is really the most delightful and amiable,
the most reasonable and pleasant thing in the world.
In a word, if I understand you aright, self-denial is,

MISCELLANEOUS. 53

in truth, self-recognising, self-acknowledging, or self-
owning. But now, my friend, you are to perform
another promise, and show me the path that leads up
to that constant, durable, and invariable good, which I
have heard you so beautifully describe, and which you
seem so fully to possess. Is not this good of yours a
mere chimera ? Can any thing be constant in a world
which is eternally changing, and which appears to exist
by an everlasting revolution of one thing into another,
and where every thing without us, and every thing
within us, is in perpetual motion ? What is this con-
stant, durable good, then, of yours ? Prithee, satisfy my
soul, for I am all on fire, and impatient to enjoy her.
Produce this eternal blooming goddess with never-fading
charms, and see whether I will not embrace her with as
much eagerness and rapture as you.

Phil. You seem enthusiastically warm, Horatio; I
will wrait till you are cool enough to attend to the sober,
dispassionate voice of reason.

Hor. You mistake me, my dear Philocles ; my
warmth is not so great as to run away with my reason ;
it is only just raised enough to open my faculties, and
fit them to receive those eternal truths, and that durable
good, which you so triumphantly boasted of. Begin,
then ; I am prepared.

Phil. I will. I believe, Horatio, with all your skep-
ticism about you, you will allow that good to be con-
stant which is never absent from you, and that to be
durable which never ends but with your being.

Hor. Yes, go on.

Phil. That can never be the good of a creature,
which when present, the creature may be miserable,
and when absent, is certainly so.

Hor. I think not ; but pray explain what you mean ;

54 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

for I am not much used to this abstract way of rea-
soning.

Phil. I mean all the pleasures of sense. The good
of man cannot consist in the mere pleasures of sense ;
because, when any one of those objects which you love
is absent, or cannot be come at, }ou are certainly
miserable; and if the faculty be impaired, though the
object be present, you cannot enjoy it. So that this
sensual good depends upon a thousand things without
and within you, and all out of your power. Can this
then be the good of man? Say, Horatio, what think
you, is not this a checkered, fleeting, fantastical good ?
Can that, in any propriety of speech, be called the
good of man which, even while he is tasting, he may
be miserable ; and which when he cannot taste, he is
necessarily so ? Can that be our good, which costs us
a great deal of pains to obtain, which cloys in possess-
ing, for which we must wait the return of appetite
before we can enjoy again? Or is that our good,
which we can come at without difficulty, which is
heightened by possession, which never ends in weari-
ness and disappointment, and which, the more we
enjoy, the better qualified we are to enjoy on ?

HOT. The latter, I think ; but why do you torment
me thus ? Philocles, show me this good immediately.

Phil. I have showed you what it is not; it is not
sensual, but it is rational and moral good. It is doing
all the good we can to others, by acts of humanity,
friendship, generosity, and benevolence; this is that
constant and durable good, which will afford content-
ment and satisfaction always alike, without variation
or diminution. I speak to your experience now, Ho-
ratio. Did you ever find yourself weary of relieving the
miserable ? or of raising the distressed into life or hap-
piness ? Or rather, do not you find the pleasure grow

MISCELLANEOUS. 55

upon you by repetition, and that it is greater in the
reflection than in the act itself? Is there a pleasure
upon earth to be compared with that whictf arises from
the sense of making others happy ? Can this pleasure
ever be absent, or ever end but with your being ? Does
it not always accompany you ? Doth not it lie down
and rise with you, live as long as you live, give you
consolation in the hour of death, and remain with you
when all other things are going to forsake you, or you
them?

Hor. How glowingly you paint, Philocles. Methinks
Horatio is amongst the enthusiasts. I feel the passion ;
I am enchantingly convinced, but I do not know why ;
overborne by something stronger than reason. Sure
some divinity speaks within me. But prithee, Philo-
cles, give me the cause, why this rational and moral
good so infinitely excels the mere natural or sensual.

Phil. I think, Horatio, that I have clearly shown you
the difference between merely natural or sensual good,
and rational or moral good. Natural or sensual pleasure
continues no longer than the action itself; but this
divine or moral pleasure continues when the action
is over, and swells and grows upon your hand by re-
flection. The one is inconstant, unsatisfying, of short
duration, and attended with numberless ills ; the other
is constant, yields full satisfaction, is durable, and no
evils preceding, accompanying, or following it. But if
you inquire farther into the cause of this difference,
and would know why the moral pleasures are greater
than the sensual, perhaps the reason is the same as
in all other creatures, that their happiness or chief good
consists in acting up to their chief faculty, or that
faculty which distinguishes them from all creatures of a
different species. The chief faculty in man is his
reason, and consequently his chief good, or that which

56 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

may be justly called his good, consists not merely in
action, but in reasonable action. By reasonable ac-
tions, we understand those actions which are preserv-
ative of the human kind, and naturally tend to produce
real and unmixed happiness; and these actions, by
way of distinction, we call actions morally good.

Hor. You speak very clearly, Philocles; but, that
no difficulty may remain on my mind, pray tell me
what is the real difference between natural good and
evil, and moral good and evil? for I know several
people who use the terms without ideas.

Phil. That may be. The difference lies only in
this ; that natural good and evil are pleasure and pain ;
moral good and evil are pleasure or pain produced with
intention and design; for it is the intention only that
makes the agent morally good or bad.

Hor. But may not a man, with a very good inten-
tion, do an evil action ?

Phil. Yes ; but then he errs in his judgment, though
his design be good. If his error is 'inevitable, or such
as, all things considered, he could not help, he is in-
culpable ; but, if it arose through want of diligence in
forming his judgment about the nature of human ac-
tions, he is immoral and culpable.

Hor. I find, then, that in order to please ourselves
rightly, or to do good to others morally, we should take
great care of our opinions.

Phil. Nothing concerns you more ; for, as the happi-
ness or real good of men consists in right action, and
right action cannot be produced without right opinion,
it behoves us, above all things in this world, to take
care that our own opinions of things be according to
the nature of things. The foundation of all virtue and
happiness is thinking rightly. He who sees an action
is right, that is, naturally tending to good, and does it

MISCELLANEOUS. 57

because of that tendency, he only is a moral man ; and
he alone is capable of that constant, durable, and in-
variable good, which has been the subject of this con-
versation.

Hor. How, my dear philosophical guide, shall I be
able to know, and determine certainly, what is right
and wrong in life ?

Phil. As easily as you distinguish a circle from a
square, or light from darkness. Look, Horatio, into
the sacred book of nature ; read your own nature, and
view the relation which other men stand in to you, and
you to them, and you will immediately see what con-
stitutes human happiness, and consequently what is
right.

Hor. We are just coming into town, and can say
no more at present. You are my good genius, Philo-
cles. You have showed me what is good. You have
redeemed me from the slavery and misery of folly and
vice, and made me a free and happy being.

Phil. Then I am the happiest man hi the world.
Be you steady, Horatio. Never depart from reason
and virtue.

Hor. Sooner will I lose my existence. Good night,
Philocles.

Phil. Adieu, dear Horatio !

PUBLIC MEN.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, SEPT. 3, 1730.

THE following is a dialogue between Socrates, the
great Athenian philosopher, and one Glaucon, a private
man, of mean abilities, but ambitious of being chosen
a senator, and of governing the republic; wherein

VOL. II. 8

58 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Socrates in a pleasant manner convinces him of his
incapacity for public affairs, by making him sensible
of his ignorance of the interests of his country in their
several branches, and entirely dissuades him from any
attempt of that nature. There is also added, at the
end, part of another dialogue the same Socrates had
with one Charmidas, a worthy man, but too modest,
wherein he endeavours to persuade him to put himself
forward and undertake public business, as being very
capable of it. The whole is taken from Xenophon's
Memorable Things of Socrates, Book Third.

"A certain man, whose name was Glaucon, the son
of Ariston, had so fixed it in his mind to govern the
republic, that he frequently presented himself before
the people to discourse of affairs of state, though all
the world laughed at him for it; nor was it in the
power of his relations or friends to dissuade him from
that design. But Socrates had a kindness for him, on
account of Plato, his brother, and he only it was who
made him change his resolution. He met him, and
accosted him in so winning a manner, that he first
obliged him to hearken to his discourse. He began
with him thus ;

" ' You have a mind then to govern the republic 1 '

" ' I have so,' answered Glaucon.

" ' You cannot,' replied Socrates, ' have a more noble
design; for if you can accomplish it so as to be-
come absolute, you will be able to serve your friends,
you will raise your family, you will extend the bounds
of your country, you will be known, not only in Athens,
but through all Greece, and perhaps your renown will
fly even to the barbarous nations, as did that of The-
mistocles. In short, wherever you come, you will have
the respect and admiration of all the world.'

"These words soothed Glaucon, and won him to

MISCELLANEOUS. 59

give ear to Socrates, who went on in this manner.
' But it is certain, that if you desire to be honored, you
must be useful to the state.'

" * Certainly,' said Glaucon.

" ' And in the name of all the gods,' replied Socrates,
'tell me, what is the first service that you intend to
render the state ? '

"Glaucon was considering what to answer, when
Socrates continued. * If you design to make the for-
tune of one of your friends, you will endeavour to make
him rich, and thus perhaps you will make it your
business to enrich the republic?'

" ' I would,' answered Glaucon.

" Socrates replied ; * Would not the way to enrich
the republic be to increase its revenue ? '

" ' It is very likely it would,' answered Glaucon.

" ' Tell me then, in what consists the revenue of the
state, and to how much it may amount? I presume
you have particularly studied this matter, to the end
that, if any thing should be lost on one hand, you might
know where to make it good on another, and that, if a
fund should fail on a sudden, you might immediately
be able to settle another in its place ? '

" * I protest,' answered Glaucon, ' I have never thought
of this.'

" ' Tell me at least the expenses of the republic, for
no doubt you intend to retrench the superfluous ? '

" * I never thought of this either,' said Glaucon.

" ' You were best then to put off to another time your
design of enriching the republic, which you can never
be able to do while you are ignorant both of its ex-
penses and revenue.'

" * There is another way to enrich a state,' said Glau-
con, * of which you take no notice, and that is, by the
ruin [spoils] of its enemies.'

60 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

"'You are in the right/ answered Socrates; 'but
to this end it is necessary to be stronger than they,
otherwise we shall run the hazard of losing what we
have. He, therefore, who talks of undertaking a war,
ought to know the strength on both sides, to the end
that if his party be the stronger he may boldly advise
for war, and that if it be the weaker he may dissuade
the people from engaging themselves in so dangerous
an enterprise.'

"'All this is true.'

"'Tell me, then,' continued Socrates, 'how strong
our forces are by sea and land, and how strong are
our enemies.'

" ' Indeed,' said Glaucon, ' I cannot tell you on a
sudden.'

" ' If you have a list of them in writing, pray show it
me ; I should be glad to hear it read.'

" ' I have it not yet.'

" ' I see, then,' said Socrates, ' that we shall not en-
gage in war so soon ; for the greatness of the under-
taking will hinder you from maturely weighing all the
consequences of it in the beginning of your govern-
ment. But,' continued he, 'you have thought of the
defence of the country ; you know what garrisons are
necessary, and what are not ; you know what number
of troops is sufficient in one, and not sufficient in
another ; you will cause the necessary garrisons to be
reinforced, and will disband those that are useless ? '

" ' I should be of opinion,' said Glaucon, ' to leave
none of them on foot, because they ruin a country on
pretence of defending it.'

" ' But,' Socrates objected, ' if all the garrisons were
taken away, there would be nothing to hinder the first
comer from carrying off what he pleased ; but how
come you to know that the garrisons behave themselves

MISCELLANEOUS. 61

so ill? Have you been upon the place? Have you
seen them ? '

" < Not at all ; but I suspect it to be so.'

" ' When therefore we are certain of it,' said Socrates,
' and can speak upon better grounds than simple con-
jectures, we will propose this advice to the senate.'

" ' It may be well to do so,' said Glaucon.

" « It comes into my mind, too,' continued Socrates,
'that you have never been at the mines of silver, to
examine why they bring not in so much now as they,,
did formerly.'

" ' You say true ; I have never been there.'

" ' Indeed they say the place is very unhealthy, and
that may excuse you.'

" ' You rally me now,' said Glaucon.

" Socrates added, ' But I believe you have at least
observed how much corn our lands produce, how long
it will serve to supply our city, and how much more
we shall want for the whole year; to the end you
may not be surprised with a scarcity of bread, but
may give timely orders for the necessary provisions.'

" ' There is a deal to do,' said Glaucon, ' if we must
take care of all these things.'

" ( There is so,' replied Socrates ; * and it is even im-
possible to manage our own families well, unless we
know all that is wanting, and take care to provide it.
As you see, therefore, that our city is composed of above
ten thousand families, and it being a difficult task to
watch over them all at once, why did you not first try
to retrieve your uncle's affairs, which are running to
decay? and after having given that proof of your in-
dustry, you might have taken a greater trust upon you.
But now, when you find yourself incapable of aiding
a private man, how can you think of behaving yourself
so as to be useful to a whole people ? Ought a man,

VOL. II. F

62 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

who has not strength enough to carry a hundred
pound weight, to undertake to carry a heavier burden ? '

" ' I would have done good service to my uncle,' said
Glaucon, * if he would have taken my advice.'

"'How,' replied Socrates, 'have you not hitherto
been able to govern the mind of your uncle, and do
you now believe yourself able to govern the minds of all
the Athenians, and his among the rest? Take heed,
my dear Glaucon, take heed lest too great a desire of
power should render you despised ; consider how dan-
gerous it is to speak and entertain ourselves concerning
things we do not understand ; what a figure do those
forward and rash people make in the world who do
so ; and judge yourself, whether they acquire more
esteem than blame, whether they are more admired
than contemned. Think, on the contrary, with how
much more honor a man is regarded, who understands
perfectly what he says and what he does, and then
you will confess, that renown and applause have always
been the recompense of true merit, and shame the
reward of ignorance and temerity. If, therefore, you
would be honored, endeavour to be a man of true
merit; and, if you enter upon the government of the
republic with a mind more sagacious than usual, I
shall not wonder if you succeed in all your designs.' "

Thus Socrates put a stop to the disorderly ambition
of this man ; but, on an occasion quite contrary, he in
the following manner exhorted Charmidas to take an
employment.

" He was a man of sense, and more deserving than
most others in the same post; but, as he was of a
modest disposition, he constantly declined, and made
great difficulties of engaging himself in public business.
Socrates therefore addressed himself to him in this
manner ;

MISCELLANEOUS. 63

" ' If you knew any man that could gain the prizes
in the public games, and by that means render himself
illustrious, and acquire glory to his country, what would
you say of him if he refused to offer himself to the
combat ? '

" ' I would say,' answered Charmidas, ' that he was a
mean-spirited, effeminate fellow.'

" ' And if a man were capable of governing a republic,
of increasing its power by his advice, and of raising
himself by this means to a high degree of honor,
would you not brand him likewise with meanness of
soul, if he would not present himself to be employed ? '

" ' Perhaps I might,' said Charmidas ; * but why do
you ask me this question?' Socrates replied, 'Be-
cause you are capable of managing the affairs of the
republic ; and nevertheless you avoid doing so, though
hi quality of a citizen you are obliged to take care
of the commonwealth. Be no longer then thus negli-
gent in this matter; consider your abilities and your
duty with more attention, and let not slip the occasions
of serving the republic, and of rendering it, if possible,
more flourishing than it is. This will be a blessing,
whose influence will descend not only on the other
citizens, but on your best friends and yourself.' "

SELF-DENIAL NOT THE ESSENCE OF VIRTUE.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, FEB. 18, 1734.

IT is commonly asserted, that without self-denial
there is no virtue, and that the greater the self-denial
the greater the virtue.

If it were said, that he who cannot deny himself any
thing he inclines to, though he knows it will be to his

64 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

hurt, has not the virtue of resolution or fortitude, it
would be intelligible enough ; but, as it stands, it seems
obscure or erroneous.

Let us consider some of the virtues singly.

If a man has no inclination to wrong people in his
dealings, if he feels no temptation to it, and therefore
never does it, can it be said that he is not a just man ?
If he is a just man, has he not the virtue of justice ?

If to a certain man idle diversions have nothing
in them that is tempting, and therefore he never relaxes
his application to business for their sake, is he not
an industrious man? Or has he not the virtue of
industry ?

I might in like manner instance in all the rest of
the virtues; but, to make the thing short, as it is
certain that the more we strive against the temptation
to any vice, and practise the contrary virtue, the weaker
will that temptation be, and the stronger will be that
habit, till at length the temptation has no force, or
entirely vanishes; does it follow from thence, that in
our endeavours to overcome vice we grow continually
less and less virtuous, till at length we have no virtue
at all?

I If self-denial be the essence of virtue, then it follows
that the man, who is naturally temperate, just, &c., is
not virtuous ; but that in order to be virtuous, he must,
in spite of his natural inclination, wrong his neighbours,
ind eat, and drink, &,c., to excess.

But perhaps it may be said, that by the word virtue
in the above assertion, is meant merit ; and so it should
stand thus ; Without self-denial there is no merit, and
the greater the self-denial the greater the merit.

The self-denial here meant, must be when our in-
clinations are towards vice, or else it would still be
nonsense.

MISCELLANEOUS. 65

By merit is understood desert; and, when we say
a man merits, we mean that he deserves praise or
reward.

We do not pretend to merit any thing of God, for
he is above our services ; and the benefits he confers
on us are the effects of his goodness and bounty. /

All our merit, then, is with regard to one another, "
and from one to another.

Taking, then, the assertion as it last stands,

If a man does me a service from a natural benevolent
inclination, does he deserve less of me than another,
who does me the like kindness against his inclination ?

If I have two journeymen, one naturally industrious,
the other idle, but both perform a day's work equally
good, ought I to give the latter the most wages ?

Indeed lazy workmen are commonly observed to
be more extravagant in their demands than the in-
dustrious ; for, if they have not more for their work, they
cannot live as well. But though it be true to a proverb,
that lazy folks take the most pains, does it follow that
they deserve the most money ?

If you were to employ servants in affairs of trust,
would you not bid more for one you knew was
naturally honest, than for one naturally roguish, but
who has lately acted honestly ? For currents whose
natural channel is dammed up, till the new course is
by time worn sufficiently deep, and become natural,
are apt to break their banks. If one servant is more
valuable than another, has he not more merit than the
other? and yet this is not on account of superior
self-denial.

Is a patriot not praiseworthy, if public spirit is natural
to him?

Is a pacing-horse less valuable for being a natural v/

pacer ?

VOL. II.

F*

66 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Nor, in my opinion, has any man less merit for
having in general natural virtuous inclinations.

The truth is, that temperance, justice, charity, &c.
are virtues, whether practised with, or against our in-
clinations, and the man, who practises them, merits our
love and esteem; and self-denial is neither good nor
bad, but as it is applied. He that denies a vicious
inclination, is virtuous in proportion to his resolution ;
but the most perfect virtue is above all temptation;
such as the virtue of the saints in heaven; and he,
who does a foolish, indecent, or wicked thing, merely
because it is contrary to his inclination (like some mad
enthusiasts I have read of, who ran about naked, under
the notion of taking up the cross), is not practising

the reasonable science of virtue, but is a lunatic.

• .

ON THE USEFULNESS OF THE MATHEMATICS.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, OCT. 30, 1735.

MATHEMATICS originally signifies any kind of dis-
cipline or learning, but now it is taken for that science,
which teaches or contemplates whatever is capable of
being numbered or measured. That part of the
mathematics, which relates to numbers only, is called
arithmetic ; and that, which is concerned about measure
in general, whether length, breadth, motion, force, £,c.,
is called geometry.

As to the usefulness of arithmetic, it is well known,
that no business, commerce, trade, or employment
whatsoever, even from the merchant to the shopkeeper,
&c., can be managed and carried on without the assist-
ance of numbers ; for by these the trader computes the
value of all sorts of goods that he dealeth in, does his

MISCELLANEOUS. 67

business with ease and certainty, and informs himself
how matters stand at any time with respect to men,
money, or merchandise, to profit and loss, whether he
goes forward or backward, grows richer or poorer.
Neither is this science only useful to the merchant, but
is reckoned the primum mobile (or first mover) of all
mundane affairs in general, and is useful for all sorts
and degrees of men, from the highest to the lowest.

As to the usefulness of geometry, it is as certain
that no curious art, or mechanic work, can either be
invented, improved, or performed, without its assisting
principles.

It is owing to this, that astronomers are put into a
way of making their observations, coming at the know-
ledge of the extent of the heavens, the duration of
time, the motions, magnitudes, and distances of the
heavenly bodies, their situations, positions, risings,
settings, aspects, and eclipses; also the measure of
seasons, of years, and of ages.

It is by the assistance of this science, that geogra-
phers present to our view at once the magnitude and
form of the whole earth, the vast extent of the seas,
the divisions of empires, kingdoms, and provinces.

It is by the help of geometry the ingenious mariner
is instructed how to guide a ship through the vast
ocean, from one part of the earth to another, the
nearest and safest way, and in the shortest time.

By help of this science the architects take their just
measures for the structure of buildings, as private
houses, churches, palaces, ships, fortifications, &,c.

By its help engineers conduct all their works, take
the situation and plan of towns, forts, and castles,
measure their distances from one another, and carry
their measures into places that are only accessible to
the eye.

68 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

From hence also is deduced that admirable art of
drawing sun-dials on any plane howsoever situate, and
for any part of the world, to point out the exact time
of the day, sun's declination, altitude, amplitude, azi-
muth, and other astronomical matters.

By geometry the surveyor is directed how to draw
a map of any country, to divide his lands, and to lay
down and plot any piece of ground, and thereby
discover the area in acres, rods, and perches ; the
ganger is instructed how to find the capacities or
solid contents of all kinds of vessels, in barrels, gallons,
bushels, &c. ; and the measurer is furnished with
rules for finding the areas and contents of superficies
and solids, and casting up all manner of workmanship.
All these, and many more useful arts, too many to be
enumerated here, wholly depend upon the aforesaid
sciences, viz. arithmetic and geometry.

This science is descended from the infancy of the
world, the inventors of which were the first propa-
gators of human kind, as Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, and divers others.

There has not been any science so much esteemed
and honored as this of the mathematics, nor with so
much industry and vigilance become the care of great
men, and labored in by the potentates of the world,
viz. emperors, kings, princes, &,c.

Mathematical demonstrations are a logic of as much
or more use, than that commonly learned at schools,
serving to a just formation of the mind, enlarging its
capacity, and strengthening it so as to render the same
capable of exact reasoning, and discerning truth from
falsehood in all occurrences, even subjects not mathe-
matical. For which reason it is said, the Egyptians,
Persians, and Lacedaemonians seldom elected any new
kings, but such as had some knowledge in the mathe-

MISCELLANEOUS. 69

matics, imagining those, who had not, men of imperfect
judgments, and unfit to rule and govern.

Though Plato's censure, that those who did not
understand the 117th proposition of the 13th book of
Euclid's Elements, ought not to be ranked amongst
rational creatures, was unreasonable and unjust; yet
to give a man the character of universal learning, who
is destitute of a competent knowledge in the mathe-
matics, is no less so.

The usefulness of some particular parts of the mathe-
matics, in the common affairs of human life, has ren-
dered some knowledge of them very necessary to a
great part of mankind, and very convenient to all the
rest, that are any way conversant beyond the limits
of their own particular callings.

Those whom necessity has obliged to get their bread
by manual industry, where some degree of art is re-
quired to go along with it, and who have had some
insight into these studies, have very often found ad-
vantages from them sufficient to reward the pains
they were at hi acquiring them. And whatever may
have been imputed to some other studies, under the
notion of insignificancy and loss of time, yet these, I
believe, never caused repentance in any, except it was
for their remissness in the prosecution of them.

Philosophers do generally affirm that human know-
ledge to be most excellent, which is conversant amongst
the most excellent things. What science then can
there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for
men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than
this of the mathematics ?

I shall conclude with what Plato says, in the seventh
book of his Republic, with regard to the excellence,
and usefulness of geometry, being to this purpose ;

" Dear friend ; you see then that mathematics are

70 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

necessary, because, by the exactness of the method,
we get a habit of using our minds to the best advan-
tage. And it is remarkable, that, all men being capable
by nature to reason and understand the sciences, the
less acute, by studying this, though useless to them
in every other respect, will gain this advantage, that
their minds will be improved in reasoning aright; for
no study employs it more, nor makes it susceptible of
attention so much; and those, who we find have a
mind worth cultivating, ought to apply themselves to
this study."

ON TRUE HAPPINESS.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, NOV. 20, 1735.

THE desire of happiness in general is so natural to
us, that all the world are in pursuit of it ; all have this
one end hi view, though they take such different
methods to attain it, and are so much divided in their
notions of it.

Evil, as evil, can never be chosen ; and, though evil
is often the effect of our own choice, yet we never
desire it, but under the appearance of an imaginary
good.

Many things we indulge ourselves in may be con-
sidered by us as evils, and yet be desirable ; but then
they are only considered as evils in their effects and
consequences, not as evils at present, and attended
wiih immediate misery.

^Reason represents things to us, not only as they
are at present, but as they are in their whole nature
and tendency; passion only regards them in their
former light. J When this governs us, we are regardless

MISCELLANEOUS. 71

of the future, and are only affected with the present.
It is impossible ever to enjoy ourselves rightly, if
our conduct be not such as to preserve the harmony
and order of our faculties, and the original frame and
constitution of our minds ; all true happiness^ jis all
that is truly beautiful, can only result from order.

Whilst there is a conflict betwixt the two principles
of passion and reason, we must be miserable in pro-
portion to the struggle; and when the victory is
gamed, and reason so far subdued as seldom to trouble
us with its remonstrances, the happiness we have then
is not the happiness of our rational nature, but the
happiness only of the inferior and sensual part of us,
and consequently a very low and imperfect happiness,
to what the other would have afforded us.

If we reflect upon any one passion and disposition
of mind, abstract from virtue, we shall soon see the
disconnexion between that and true, solid happiness.
It is of the very essence, for instance, of envy to be
uneasy and disquieted. Pride meets with provocations
and disturbances upon almost every occasion. Covet-
ousness is ever attended with solicitude and anxiety.
Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never
the good fortune to satisfy us; its appetite grows the
keener by indulgence, and all we can gratify it with
at present serves but the more to inflame its insatia-
ble desires.

The passions, by being too much conversant with
earthly objects, can never fix in us a proper composure
and acquiescence of mind, f Nothing but an indiffer-
ence to the things of this world, an entire submission
to the will of Providence here, and a well-grounded
expectation of happiness hereafter, can give us a true
satisfactory enjoyment of ourselves. J Virtue is the best
guard against the many unavoidable evils incident to

72 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS

us; nothing better alleviates the weight of the afflic-
tions, or gives a truer relish of the blessings, of human
life.

What is without us has not the least connexion
with happiness, only so far as the preservation of our
lives and health depends upon it. Health of body,
though so far necessary that we cannot be perfectly
happy without it, is not sufficient to make us happy of
itself. Happiness springs immediately from the mind ;
health is but to be considered as a condition or cir-
cumstance, without which this happiness cannot be
tasted pure and unabated.

Virtue is the best preservative of health, as it pre-
scribes temperance, and such a regulation of our pas-
sions as is most conducive to the well-being of the
animal economy; so that it is, at the same time, the
only true" happiness of the mind, and the best means
of preserving the health of the body.

If our desires are to the things of this world, they
are never to be satisfied. If our great view is upon
those of the next, the expectation of them is an in-
finitely higher satisfaction than the enjoyment of those
of the present.

There is no happiness, then, but in a virtuous and
self-approving conduct. Unless our actions will bear
the test of our sober judgments and reflections upon
them, they are not the actions, and consequently not
the happiness, of a rational being.

MISCELLANEOUS. 73

ON DISCOVERIES.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, OCT. 14, 1736.

THE world but a few ages since was in a very poor
condition, as to trade and navigation ; nor indeed were
they much better in other matters of useful knowledge.
It was a green-headed time ; every useful improvement
was hid from them; they had neither looked into
heaven nor earth, into the sea nor land, as has been
done since. They had philosophy without experiments,
mathematics without instruments, geometry without
scale, astronomy without demonstration.

They made war without powder, shot, cannon, or
mortars; nay, the mob made their bonfires without
squibs or crackers. They went to sea without com-
pass, and sailed without the needle. They viewed the
stars without telescopes, and .measured latitudes without
observation. Learning had no printing-press, writing
no paper, and paper no ink. The lover was forced to
send his mistress a deal board for a love-letter, and a
billet-doux might be about the size of an ordinary
trencher. They were clothed without manufacture,
and their richest robes were the skins of the most
formidable monsters. They carried on trade without
books, and correspondence without posts; their mer-
chants kept no accounts, their shopkeepers no cash-
books; they had surgery without anatomy, and phy-
sicians without the materia medica ; they gave emetics
without ipecacuanha, drew blisters without cantharides,
and cured agues without the bark.

*As for geographical discoveries, they had neither
seen the North Cape, nor the Cape of Good Hope
south. All the discovered inhabited world, which they
knew and conversed with, was circumscribed within

VOL. II. 10 G

74 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

very narrow limits, viz. France, Britain, Spain, Italy,
Germany, and Greece ; the lesser Asia, the west part
of Persia, Arabia, the north parts of Africa, and the
islands of the Mediterranean sea, and this was the
whole world to them; not that even these countries
were fully known either, and several parts of them not
inquired into at all. Germany was known little further
than the banks of the Elbe; Poland as little beyond
the Vistula, or Hungary as little beyond the Danube ;
Muscovy or Russia perfectly unknown, as much as
China beyond it ; and India only by a little commerce
upon the coast, about Surat and Malabar. Africa had
been more unknown, but by the ruin of the Cartha-
ginians ; all the western coast of it was sunk out of
knowledge again, and forgotten ; the northern coast of
Africa, in the Mediterranean, remained known, and
that was all ; for the Saracens overrunning the nations
which were planted there, ruined commerce, as well
as religion. The Baltic sea was not discovered, nor
even the navigation of it known; for the Teutonic
knights came not thither till the thirteenth century.

America was not heard of, nor so much as a sug-
gestion in the minds of men that any part of the world
lay that way. The coasts of Greenland, or Spits-
bergen, and the whale-fishing, not known; the best
navigators in the world, at that time, would have fled
from a whale, with much more fright and horror, than
from the Devil, in the most terrible shapes they had
been told he appeared in.

The coasts of Angola, Congo, the Gold and the
Grain coasts, on the west side of Africa, whence, since
that time, such immense wealth has been drawn, not
discovered, nor the least inquiry made after them. All
the East India and China trade, not only undiscovered,
but out of the reach of expectation ! Coffee and tea

MISCELLANEOUS. 75

(those modern blessings of mankind) had never been
heard of. All the unbounded ocean, we now call the
South Sea, was hid and unknown. All the Atlantic
ocean beyond the mouth of the Straits, was frightful
and terrible in the distant prospect, nor durst any one
peep into it, otherwise than as they might creep along
the coast of Africa, towards Sallee, or Santa Cruz.
The North Sea was hid in a veil of impenetrable
darkness. The White Sea, or Archangel, was a very
modern discovery ; not found out till Sir Hugh Wil-
loughby doubled the North Cape, and paid dear for
the adventure, being frozen to death with all his crew,
on the coast of Lapland; while his companions' ship,
with the famous Mr. Chancellor, went on to the gulf
of Russia, called the White Sea, where no Christian
strangers had ever been before him.

In these narrow circumstances stood the world's
knowledge at the beginning of the fifteenth century,
when men of genius began to look abroad, and about
them. Now, as it was wonderful to see a world so full
of people, and people so capable of improving, yet so
stupid and so blind, so ignorant and so perfectly un-
improved ; it was wonderful to see, with what a general
alacrity they took the alarm, almost all together, pre-
paring themselves as it were on a sudden, by a general
inspiration, to spread knowledge through the earth, and
to search into every thing that it was possible to un-
cover.

How surprising is it to look back, so little a way
behind us, and see, that even in less than two hundred
years, all this (now so self-wise) part of the world did
not so much as know whether there was any such
place as a Russia, a China, a Guinea, a Greenland, or
a North Cape! That as to America, it was never

76 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

supposed there was any such place; neither had the
world, though they stood upon the shoulders of four
thousand years' experience, the least thought, so much
as that there was any land that way ! *

As they were ignorant of places, so of things also ;
so vast are the improvements of science, that all our
knowledge of mathematics, of nature, of the brightest
part of human wisdom, had their admission among us
within these two last centuries.

What was the world, then, before? And to what
were the heads and hands of mankind applied 1 The
rich had no commerce, the poor no employment; war
and the sword was the great field of honor, the stage
of preferment ; and you have scarce a man eminent in
the world for any thing, before that tune, but for a
furious, outrageous falling upon his fellow-creatures, like
Nimrod, and his successors of modern memory.

The world is now daily increasing in experimental
knowledge ; and let no man flatter the age, with pre-
tending we have arrived at a perfection of discoveries.

What's now discovered, only serves to show,
That nothing 's known, to what is yet to know.

* Scandinavian literature was less known when this was written than
at present The learned suppose, that the Icelandic SAGAS have thrown
new light upon the history of early discoveries, and that there is good
evidence for believing that the American continent was known to the
Norwegians more than four hundred years before the birth of Colum-
bus. — See WHEATON'S History of the Northmen, Chap. II. The best
opportunity was afforded to Mr. Wheaton, during his residence in a
public capacity at Copenhagen, of ascertaining the genuineness and
authenticity of these ancient records, and he appears to place full con-
fidence in them. His opinion is, however, that " the illustrious Genoese "
could not have had the slightest knowledge of the discoveries of those
northern adventurers, and that the colony begun by them was probably
cut off at an early period, in the same manner a3 the first establish-
ments in Greenland. — EDITOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 77

THE WASTE OF LIFE.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, NOV. 18, 1736.

AISTERGUS was a gentleman of a good estate; he
was bred to no business, and could not contrive how
to waste his hours agreeably; he had no relish for
any of the proper, works of life, nor any taste at all for
the improvements of the mind ; he spent generally ten
hours of the four-and-twenty in his bed; he dozed
away two or three more on his couch, and as many
were dissolved in good liquor every evening, if he met
with company of his own humor. Five or six of the
rest he sauntered away with much indolence ; the chief
business of them was to contrive his meals, and to feed
his fancy beforehand with the promise of a dinner and
supper ; not that he was so absolute a glutton, or so
entirely devoted to appetite; but, chiefly because he
knew not how to employ his thoughts better, he let
them rove about the sustenance of his body. Thus
he had made a shift to wear off ten years since the
paternal estate fell into his hands; and yet, according
to the abuse of words in our day, he was called a
man of virtue, because he was scarce ever known to
be quite drunk, nor was his nature much inclined to
lewdness.

One evening, as he was musing alone, his thoughts
happened to take a most unusual turn, for they cast
a glance backward, and began to reflect on his manner
of life. He bethought himself what a number of living
beings had been made a sacrifice to support his car-
cass, and how much corn and wine had been mingled
with those offerings. He had not quite lost all the
arithmetic that he had learned when he was a boy,

G*

78 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

and he set himself to compute what he had devoured
since he came to the age of man.

"About a dozen of feathered creatures, small and
great, have, one week with another," said he, " given
up their lives to prolong mine, which in ten years
amounts to at least six thousand.

"Fifty sheep have been sacrificed in a year, with
half a hecatomb of black cattle, that I might have the
choicest part offered weekly upon my table. Thus a
thousand beasts out of the flock and the herd have
been slain in ten years' time to feed me, besides what
the forest has supplied me with. Many hundreds of
fishes have, in all their varieties, been robbed of life
for my repast, and of the smaller fry as many thou-
sands.

"A measure of corn would hardly afford me fine
flour enough for a month's provision, and this arises
to above six score bushels; and many hogsheads of
ale and wine, and other liquors, have passed through
this body of mine, this wretched strainer of meat and
drink.

"And what have I done all this time for God or
man ? What a vast profusion of good things upon a
useless life, and a worthless liver! There is not the
meanest creature among all these which I have de-
voured, but hath answered the end of its creation
better than I. It was made to support human nature,
and it hath done so. Every crab and oyster I have
eat, and every grain of corn I have devoured, hath
filled up its place in the rank of beings with more pro-
priety and honor than I have done. O shameful waste
of life and time ! "

In short, he carried on his moral reflections with so
just and severe a force of reason, as constrained him
to change his whole course of life, to break off hi?

MISCELLANEOUS. 79

follies at once, and to apply himself to gain some
useful knowledge, when he was more than thirty years
of age. He lived many following years, with the char-
acter of a worthy man and an excellent Christian;
he performed the kind offices of a good neighbour at
home, and made a shining figure as a patriot in the
senate-house ; he died with a peaceful conscience, and
the tears of his country were dropped upon his tomb.

The world, that knew the whole series of his life,
stood amazed at the mighty change. They beheld him
as a wonder of reformation, while he himself confessed
and adored the Divine power and mercy, which had
transformed him from a brute to a man.

But this was a single instance ; and we may almost
venture to write MIRACLE upon it. Are there not num-
bers of both sexes among our young gentry, in this
degenerate age, whose lives thus run to utter waste,
without the least tendency to usefulness?

When I meet with persons of such a worthless
character as this, it brings to my mind some scraps of
Horace ;

" Nos numerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati,

Alcinoique

juventus,

Cui pulchrum fuit in medios dormire dies," &c.

PARAPHRASE.

There are a number of us creep
Into this world, to eat and sleep ;
And know no reason why they're born,
But merely to consume the corn,
Devour the cattle, fowl, and fish,
And leave behind an empty dish.
Though crows and ravens do the same,
Unlucky birds of hateful name,
Ravens or crows might fill their places,
And swallow corn and eat carcases.

80 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Then, if their tomb-stone, when they die,
Be n't taught to flatter and to lie,
There's nothing better will be said,
Than that they 've eat up all their bread,
Drunk all their drink, and gone to bed.

There are other fragments of that heathen poet,
which occur on such occasions ; one in the first of his
Satires, the other in the last of his Epistles, which
seem to represent life only as a season of luxury.

. . " Exacto contentus tempore vitse
Cedat, uti conviva satur."
" Lusisti satis, edisti satis, atque bibisti ;
Tempus abire tibi est."

WTiich may be thus put into English.

Life's but a feast; and when we die,
Horace would say, if he were by,
" Friend, thou hast eat and drunk enough,
'Tis time now to be marching off;
Then like a well-fed guest depart,
With cheerful looks, and ease at heart;
Bid all your friends good night, and say,
You 've done the business of the day."

NECESSARY HINTS TO THOSE THAT WOULD BE RICH.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1736.

THE use of money is all the advantage there is in
having money.

For six pounds a year you may have the use of
one hundred pounds, provided you are a man of known
prudence and honesty.

He that spends a groat a day idly, spends idly above
six pounds a year, which is the price for the use of
one hundred pounds.

MISCELLANEOUS. 81

He that wastes idly a groat's worth of his time per
day, one day with another, wastes the privilege of using
one hundred pounds each day.

He that idly loses five shillings' worth of time, loses
five shillings, and might as prudently throw five shil-
lings into the sea.

He that loses five shillings, not only loses that sum,
but all the advantage that might be made by turning
it in dealing, which, by the tune that a young man
becomes old, will amount to a considerable sum of
money.

Again ; he that sells upon credit, asks a price for
what he sells equivalent to the principal and interest
of his money for the time he is to be kept out of it ;
therefore he that buys upon credit, pays interest for
what he buys, and he that pays ready money, might
let that money out to use; so that he that possesses
any thing he has bought, pays interest for the use
of it.

Yet, in buying goods, it is best to pay ready money,
because he that sells upon credit, expects to lose five
per cent by bad debts ; therefore he charges, on all he
sells upon credit, an advance that shall make up that
deficiency.

Those who pay for what they buy upon credit, pay
their share of this advance.

He that pays ready money, escapes, or may escape,
that charge.

A penny saved is two pence clear,
A pin a day 's a groat a year.

VOL. II. 11

82 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

THE WAY TO MAKE MONEY PLENTY IN EVERY
MAN'S POCKET.*

AT this time, when the general complaint is that
"money is scarce," it will be an act of kindness to
inform the moneyless how they may reinforce their
pockets. I will acquaint them with the true secret of
money-catching, the certain way to fill empty purses,
and how to keep them always full. Two simple rules,
well observed, will do the business.

First, let honesty and industry be thy constant com-
panions; and

Secondly, spend one penny less than thy clear gains.

Then shall thy hide-bound pocket soon begin to
thrive, and will never again cry with the empty belly-
ache; neither will creditors insult thee, nor want op-
press, nor hunger bite, nor nakedness freeze thee.
The whole hemisphere will shine brighter, and pleasure
spring up in every corner of thy heart. Now, there-
fore, embrace these rules and be happy. Banish the
bleak winds of sorrow from thy mind, and live inde-
pendent. Then shalt thou be a man, and not hide
thy face at the approach of the rich, nor suffer the pain
of feeling little when the sons of fortune walk at thy
right hand; for independency, whether with little or
much, is good fortune, and placeth thee on even ground
with the proudest of the golden fleece. Oh, then, be
wise, and let industry walk with thee in the morning,
and attend thee until thou reachest the evening hour

* A gentleman, who was a particular friend of Dr. Franklin, and much
used to his style of writing and conversation, has expressed a belief to
the Editor, that this piece was not from his pen. The internal evidence
is certainly but little in its favor, and it is retained here chiefly because
it is comprized in the edition published by his grandson, although there
is no proof that he had any positive authority for adopting it. — EDITOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 83

for rest. Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul,
and never forget to have a penny when all thy ex-
penses are enumerated and paid ; then shalt thou reach
the point of happiness, and independence shall be thy
shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown ; then shall
thy soul walk upright, nor stoop to the silken wretch
because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because
the hand which offers it wears a ring set with dia-
monds.

RIVALSHIP IN ALMANAC-MAKING.
FROM POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC, 1742.

COURTEOUS READER,

THIS is the ninth year of my endeavours to serve
thee in the capacity of a calendar-writer. The en-
couragement I have met with must be ascribed, in a
great measure, to your charity, excited by the open,
honest declaration I made of my poverty at my first
appearance. This my brother Philomaths could, with-
out being conjurers, discover ; and Poor Richard's suc-
cess has produced ye a Poor Will, and a Poor Robin ;
and no doubt Poor John, &c. will follow, and we shall
all be, in name, what some folks say we are already
in fact, a parcel of poor almanac-makers. During the
course of these nine years, what buffetings have I not
sustained ! The fraternity have been all in arms.
Honest Titan, deceased, was raised, and made to abuse
his old friend. Both authors and printers were angry.
Hard names, and many, were bestowed on me. They de-
nied me to be the author of my own works ; declared there
never was any such person ; asserted that I was dead
sixty years ago; prognosticated my death to happen

84 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

within a twelvemonth ; with many other malicious in-
consistencies, the effects of blind passion, envy at my
success, and a vain hope of depriving me, dear reader,
of thy wonted countenance and favor. WJio knows
him 1 they cry ; where does he live 1 But what is that
to them ? If I delight in a private life, have they any
right to drag me out of my retirement? I have good
reasons for concealing the place of my abode. It is
time for an old man, as I am, to think of preparing for
his great remove. The perpetual teasing of both neigh-
bours and strangers to calculate nativities, give judg-
ments on schemes, and erect figures, discover thieves,
detect horse-stealers, describe the route of runaways
and strayed cattle ; the crowd of visiters with a thou-
sand trifling questions, Will my ship return safe ?• Will
my mare win the race 1 Will her next colt be a pacer ?
When will my wife die 1 Who shall be my husband ?
and HOW LONG first? When is the best time to
cut hair, trim cocks, or sow sallad ? these and the
like impertinences I have now neither taste nor leisure
for. I have had enough of them. All that these
angry folks can say, will never provoke me to tell them
where I live ; I would eat my nails first.

My last adversary is /. / n, Philomat., who de-
clares and protests (in his preface, 1741), that the false
prophecy put in my Jllmanac, concerning him, the year
before, is altogether false and untrue, and that I am
one of Baal's false prophets. This false, false prophecy
he speaks of related to his reconciliation with the
church of Rome ; which, notwithstanding his declaring
and protesting, is, I fear, too true. Two things in his
elegiac verses confirm me in this suspicion. He calls
the first of November Jill-Hallows Day. Reader, does
not this smell of Popery ? Does it in the least savour
of the pure language of Friends? But the plainest

MISCELLANEOUS. 85

thing is his adoration of saints, which he confesses to
be his practice, in these words, page 4,

" When any trouble did me befall,
To my dear Mary then I would call."

Did he think the whole world \vere so stupid as not
to take notice of this? So ignorant as not to know,
that all Catholics pay the highest regard to the Virgin
Mary? Ah, friend John, we must allow you to be
a poet, but you are certainly no Protestant. I could
heartily wish your religion were as good as your
verses.

RICHARD SAUNDERS.*

* Some parts of this humorous Piece will be explained by the follow-
ing address, contained in Poor Richard's Jttmanac for the year 1736.
" LOVING READERS,

" Ycur kind acceptance of my former labors has encouraged me to
continue writing, though the general approbation you have been so good
as to favor me with has excited the envy of some, and drawn upon me
the malice of others. These ill-willers of mine, despited at the great
reputation I gained by exactly predicting another man's death, have en-
deavoured to deprive me of it all at once in the most effectual manner,
by reporting that I myself was never alive. They say in short, Tliat there
is no such man as I am; and have spread this notion so thoroughly in
the country, that I have been frequently told it to my face by those
that don't know me. This is not civil treatment, to endeavour to deprive
me of my very being, and reduce me to a nonentity hi the opinion of the
public. But so long as I know myself to walk about, eat, drink, and
sleep, I am satisfied that there is really such a man as I am, whatever
they may say to the contrary. And the world may be satisfied likewise ;
for if there were no such man as I am, how is it possible I should ap-
pear publicly to hundreds of people, as I have done for several years
past, in print? I need not, indeed, have taken any notice of so idle a
report, if it had not been for the sake of my printer, to whom my enemies
are pleased to ascribe my productions ; and who, it seems, is as unwilling
to father my offspring, as I am to lose the credit of it. Therefore to clear
him entirely, as well as to vindicate my own honor, I make this public and
serious declaration, which I desire may be believed, to wit, that what 1
have ivritten heretofore, and do now write, neither was nor is written by any
other man or men, person or persons, ichntsoever. Those who are not satis-
fied with this, must needs be very unreasonable.

" My performance for this year follows. It submits itself, kind reader, to
thy censure, but hopes for thy candor to forgive its faults It devotes
VOL. II. H

86

FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

RULES OF HEALTH.
FROM POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC, 1742.

EAT and drink such an exact quantity as the con-
stitution of thy body allows of, in reference to the
services of the mind.

They that study much, ought not to eat so much
as those that work hard, their digestion bein- not so
good.

The exact quantity and quality, being found out, is
to be kept to constantly.

Excess in all other things whatever, as weU as in
meat and drink, is also to be avoided.

Youth, age, and the sick, require a different quantity.

And so do those of contrary complexions; for that
which is too much for a phlegmatic man, is not suffi-
cient for a choleric.

The measure of food ought to be (as much as pos-
bly may be) exactly proportionable to the quality
and condition of the stomach, because the stomach
digests it.

That quantity that is sufficient, the stomach can
perfectly concoct and digest, and it sufficeth the due
nourishment of the body.

A greater quantity of some things may be eaten

itself entirely to thy service, and will serve thee

And if it has
enough f^ the
R. SAUNDERS."

it f t 8OTt' SeaS°ned by a Httle humor> M always,

B true of the most refined quality, but suited to the general taste of the
tomes,) that he won the attention of his readers, and^prepa ed , em to
listen with approbation to the graver counsels of wisdom, and le ons of
economy and V1rtue, which abounded in Poor Richar(f ™

gained for it an unprecedented circulation. — EDITOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 87

than of others, some being of lighter digestion than
others.

The difficulty lies in finding out an exact measure ;
but eat for necessity, not pleasure ; for lust knows not
where necessity ends.

Wouldst thou enjoy a long life, a healthy body, and
a vigorous mind, and be acquainted also with the
wonderful works of God, labor in the first place to
bring thy appetite to reason.

ADVICE TO A YOUNG TRADESMAN.

WRITTEN IN THE TEAR 1748.

To MY FRIEND, A. B.

As you have desired it of me, I write the following
hints, which have been of service to me, and may, if
observed, be so to you.

Remember, that time is money. He that can earn
ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or
sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but
sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to
reckon that the only expense ; he has really spent, or
rather thrown away, five shillings besides.

Remember, that credit is money. If a man lets his
money lie in my hands after it is due, he gives me
the interest, or so much as I can make of it during
that time. This amounts to a considerable sum where
a man has good and large credit, and makes good use
of it.

Remember, that money is of the prolific, generating
nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can
beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is six,
turned again it is seven and three-pence, and so on

88 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

till it becomes an hundred pounds. The more there
is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that
the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a
breeding sow, destroys all her offspring to the thou-
sandth generation. He that murders a crown, destroys
all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds.

Remember, that six pounds a year is but a groat
a day. For this little sum (which may be daily wasted
either in time or expense unperceived) a man of credit
may, on his own security, have the constant possession
and use of an hundred pounds. So much in stock,
briskly turned by an industrious man, produces great
advantage.

Remember this saying, The good paymaster is lord
of another man's purse. He that is known to pay
punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may
at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money
his friends can spare. This is sometimes of great use.
After industry and frugality, nothing contributes more
to the raising of a young man in .the world than punc-
tuality and justice in all his dealings; therefore never
keep borrowed money an hour beyond the time you
promised, lest a disappointment shut up your friend's
purse for ever.

The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit
are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at
five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a cred-
itor, makes him easy six months longer; but, if he
sees you at a billiard-table, or hears your voice at a
tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his
money the next day; demands it, before he can re-
ceive it, in a lump.

It shows, besides, that you are mindful of what you
owe; it makes you appear a careful as well as an
honest man, and that still increases your credit.

MISCELLANEOUS. 89

Beware of thinking all your cwn that you possess,
and of living accordingly. It is a mistake that many
people who have credit fall into. To prevent this,
keep an exact account for some time, both of your
expenses and your income. If you take the pains at
first to mention particulars, it will have this good effect;
you will discover how wonderfully small, trifling ex-
penses mount up to large sums, and will discern what
might have been, and may for the future be saved,
without occasioning any great inconvenience.

In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as
plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on
two words, industry and fiiigality ; that is, waste
neither time nor money, but make the best use of both.
Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and
with them every thing. He that gets all he can hon-
estly, and saves all he gets (necessary expenses ex-
cepted), will certainly become rich, if that Being who
governs the world, to whom all should look for a
blessing on their honest endeavours, doth not, in his
wise providence, otherwise determine.

AN. OLD TRADESMAN.

PLAN FOR SAVING ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS.
FROM POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC, 1756.

As I spent some weeks last winter in visiting my
old acquaintance in the Jerseys, great complaints I
heard for want of money, and that leave to make more
paper bills could not be obtained. Friends and Coun-
trymen ; my advice on this head shall cost you nothing ;
and, if you will not be angry with me for giving it, I
promise you not to be offended if you do not take it.

VOL. II. 12 H*

90 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

You spend yearly at least two hundred thousand
pounds, it is said, in European, East-Indian, and West-
Indian commodities. Supposing one half of this ex-
pense to be in things absolutely necessary, the other
half may be called superfluities, or, at best, conven-
iences, which, however, you might live without for one
little year, and not suffer exceedingly. Now, to save
this half, observe these few directions.

1. When you incline to have new clothes, look first
well over the old ones, and see if you cannot shift with
them another year, either by scouring, mending, or even
patching if necessary. Remember, a patch on your
coat, and money in your pocket, is better and more
creditable, than a writ on your back, and no money to
take it off.

2. When you incline to buy China ware, chintzes,
India silks, or any other of their flimsy, slight manufac-
tures, I would not be so hard with you, as to insist
on your absolutely resolving against it ; all I advise is,
to put it off (as you do your repentance) till another
year; and this, in some respects, may prevent an
occasion of repentance.

3. If you are now a drinker of punch, wine, or tea,
twice a day, for the ensuing year drink them but
once a day. If you now drink them but once a day,
do it but every other day. If you do it now but once
a week, reduce the practice to once a fortnight. And,
if you do not exceed in quantity as you lessen the
times, half your expense in these articles will be saved.

4. When you incline to drink rum, fill the glass
half with water.

Thus at the year's end, there will be a hundred
thousand pounds more money m your country.

If paper money hi ever so great a quantity could be
made, no man could get any of it without giving some-

MISCELLANEOUS. 91

thing for it. But all he saves in this way, will be his
own for nothing, and his country actually so much
richer. Then the merchants' old and doubtful debts
may be honestly paid off, and trading become surer
thereafter, if not so extensive.*

* The humor and quaintness of POOR RICHARD sometimes appeared in
the advertisements, setting forth the contents of his Almanacs. The
following is from The Pennsylvania Gazette, November 6th, 1755.

" Next week will be published, and sold by the printers hereof, POOR
RICHARD'S ALMANAC for 1756, containing, besides the usual astronomical
calculations, a variety of useful and entertaining observations ; viz. How
Pennsylvania may save three millions two hundred and eighty thousand
pounds in seven years, of which every farmer may, if he pleases, have
his share ; the praises of astronomy ; the praises of religion ; conversation,
rules to be agreeable in it ; how New Jersey may clear one hundred
thousand pounds in the year 1756 ; the advantage of temperance in pro-
moting men to high stations ; the distinguishing honors conferred by God
on men industrious in their calling ; rule to prevent malignant fevers or
fluxes ; Newton's eulogy ; noble character of a general ; difference be-
tween a person of honor, and a man of honor ; settlement of a man's
moral accounts ; how to feed sixty thousand men at 2s. 8d. a day ; proper
victualling for long marches in the woods ; excellent remedies for the
cure of fluxes, dry gripes, and fevers, &c. &c. &c."

It will be recollected, that the parts relating to the feeding and march-
ing of armies were applicable to the times. The French and Indian war
was then raging on the frontiers of all the colonies. The hint respecting
the " settlement of a man's moral accounts " is found at the beginning
of the month of December.

" Well, my friend, thou art now just entering the last month of another
year. If thou art a man of business, and of prudent care, belike thou wilt
settle thy accounts, to satisfy thyself whether thou hast gained or lost
in the year past, and how much of either, the better to regulate thy
future industry or thy common expenses. This is commendable. But
it is not all. Wilt thou not examine also thy moral accounts, and see
what improvements thou hast made in the conduct of life, what vice sub-
dued, what virtue acquired ; how much better, and how much wiser, as
well as how much richer, thou art grown ? ' What shall it profit a man,
if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?' Without some care
in this matter, though thou mayest come to count thy thousands, thou
wilt possibly still appear poor in the eyes of the discerning, even here,
and be really so for ever hereafter" — EDITOR.

92 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

THE WAY TO WEALTH,

AS CLEARLY SHOWN IN THE PREFACE OF AN OLD PENNSYLVANIA
ALMANAC, ENTITLED, " POOR RICHARD IMPROVED."

FEW compositions in any language have been so widely read,
as this summary of the maxims and proverbs of Poor Richard.
The following account is given of it by Dr. Franklin, in his
Memoirs.

"In 1732 I first published my Almanac under the name of
Richard Saunders ; it was continued by me about twenty-five
years, and commonly called Poor Richard's Almanac. I endeav-
oured to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly
came to be in such demand, that I reaped considerable profit
from it, vending annually near ten thousand. And observing that
it was generally read, (scarce any neighbourhood in the province
being without it,) I considered it as a proper vehicle for conveying
instruction among the common people, who bought scarcely any
other books. I therefore filled" all the little spaces, that occurred
between the remarkable days in the Calendar, with proverbial
sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, as
the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue ; it
being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly, as
(to use here one of those proverbs) ' It is hard for an empty sack
to stand upright.' These proverbs, which contained the wisdom
of many ages and nations, I assembled and formed into a con-
nected discourse, prefixed to the Almanac of 1757, as the harangue
of a wise old man to the people attending an auction. The bringing
all these scattered counsels thus into a focus, enabled them to make
greater impression. The piece, being universally approved, was
copied in all the newspapers of the American Continent, reprinted
in Britain on a large sheet of paper to be stuck up in houses ;
two translations were made of it in France, and great numbers
bought by the clergy and gentry, to distribute gratis among their
poor parishioners and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it discouraged
useless expense in foreign superfluities, some thought it had its
share of influence in producing that growing plenty of money,
which was observable for several years after its publication."

MISCELLANEOUS. 93

In more recent times the piece has hardly been less popular.
It is suited, indeed, to every country, and to all states of society.
There have been, at least, three translations made of it into
French. The first is contained in M. Dubourg's OEuvres de
Franklin, published in two volumes, quarto, at Paris, in 1773. It
is there entitled Le Moycn de s'enrichir ; and the translator calls
the Almanac-maker Le Pauvre Henri a son aise, to avoid, as Mr.
Vaughan suggests, the jtu de mots, which would have occurred
if he had written, Le Pauvre Richard. However this may be,
M. Dubourg has rendered the sense of his author with much
fidelity. The next version was by Q,uetant, a second edition of
which appeared in 1778 ; and an improved edition in 1794, to
which M. Ginguene prefixed an abridged life of the author. The
title given in this version is La Science du Bonhomme Richard;
Ou Moyen Facile de payer les Impots. A beautiful edition of the
same, in connexion with the English, was printed at Dijon in
1795. This translation is diffuse, and less faithful than that of
Dubourg. Not satisfied with either of them, Castera made a new
one, entitled Le Chemin de la Fortune; Ou La Science du Bon-
homme Richard, which is among the other writings of Franklin,
translated by him, and published in two volumes, at Paris, in
1798. This is a closer version than that of duetant, and per-
haps more elegant than Dubourg's ; which, however, conforms more
nearly to the meaning and spirit of the original, than either of
the others.

A translation of " Poor Richard " in modern Greek was printed
at Didot's press, in Paris, in the year 1823, entitled c// : ' Emory [iij
TOV Ku).ov ' ' Pi%uQSov, avvTt&tlaa vno TOV B. <I>guyx),ivov. A brief
account of the author's life in the same language is prefixed.

Some copies of THE WAY TO WEALTH begin in the following
manner.

" I have heard, that nothing gives an author so great pleasure as
to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors. This
pleasure I have seldom enjoyed ; for, though I have been, if I may
say it without vanity, an eminent author (of Almanacs) annually
now a full quarter of a century, my brother authors in the same
way, for what reason I know not, have ever been very sparing in
their applauses ; and no other author has taken the least notice of
me ; so that, did not my writings produce me some solid pudding,
the great deficiency of praise would have quite discouraged me. I
concluded, at length, that the people were the best judges of my
merit, for they buy my works ; and besides, in my rambles, where

94 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

I am not personally known, I have frequently heard one or other
of my adages repeated, with * As poor Richard says,' at the end
on't. This gave me some satisfaction, as it showed not only that
my instructions were regarded, but discovered likewise some re-
spect for my authority ; and I own, that, to encourage the prac-
tice of remembering and reading those wise sentences, I have
sometimes quoted myself with great gravity. Judge, then, &c."

This paragraph is now seldom inserted. Indeed it was omitted
in Mr. Vaughan's edition, which was printed with the knowledge
and approbation of the author. Nor is it contained in Dubourg's
translation, which appeared earlier; but it is found in the version
by Quetant, and is retained in the beautiful Dijon edition. It has
passed thence into the modern Greek. — EDITOR.

COURTEOUS READER,

I HAVE heard, that nothing gives an author so great
pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by
others. Judge, then, how much I must have been
gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you.
I stopped my horse lately, where a great number of
people were collected at an auction of merchants'
goods. The hour of the sale not being come, they
were conversing on the badness of the times ; and one
of the company called to a plain, clean, old man, with
white locks, " Pray, Father Abraham, what think you
of the times? Will not these heavy taxes quite ruin
the country ? How shall we ever be able to pay them?
What would you advise us to?" Father Abraham
stood up, and replied, " If you would have my advice,
I will give it you in short ; for Ji word to the wise is
enough, as Poor Richard says." They joined in desir-
ing him to speak his mind, and gathering round him,
he proceeded as follows.

"Friends," said he, "the taxes are indeed very
heavy, and, if those laid on by the government were
the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily

MISCELLANEOUS. 95

discharge them ; but we have many others, and much
more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as
much by our idleness, three times as much by our
pride, and four times as much by our folly ; and from
these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver
us, by allowing an abatement. However, let us hearken
to good advice, and something may be done for us ;
God helps them that help themselves, as Poor Richard
says.

"I. It would be thought a hard government, that
should tax its people one-tenth part of their time, to
be employed in its service; but idleness taxes many
of us much more ; sloth, by bringing on diseases, ab-
solutely shortens life. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster
than labor wears ; while the used key is always bright,
as Poor Richard says. But dost thou love life, then do
not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of,
as Poor Richard says. How much more than is neces-
sary do we spend in sleep, forgetting, that The sleeping
fox catches no poultry, and that There will be sleeping
enough in the grave, as Poor Richard says.

" If time be of all things the most precious, wasting
time must be, as Poor Richard says, the greatest pro-
digality ; since, as he elsewhere tells us, Lost time is
never found again; and what we call time enough,
always proves little enough. Let us then up and be
doing, and doing to the purpose ; so by diligence shall
we do more with less perplexity. Sloth makes all
things difficult, but industry all easy ; and He that riseth
late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his
business at night ; while Laziness travels so slowly,
that Poverty soon overtakes him. Drive thy business,
let not that drive thee ; and Early to bed, and early to
rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise, as Poor
Richard says.

96 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

" So what signifies wishing and hoping for better
times ? We may make these times better, if we bestir
ourselves. Industry need not wish, and he that lives
upon hopes will die fasting. There are no gains with-
out pains ; then help, hands, for I have no lands ; or,
if I have, they are smartly taxed. He that hath a trade
hath an estate ; and he that hath a calling, hath an office
of profit and honor, as Poor Richard says; but then
the trade must be worked at, and the calling followed,
or neither the estate nor the office will enable us to pay
our taxes. If we are industrious, we shall never starve ;
for, At the working man's house hunger looks in, but
dares not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the constable
enter, for Industry pays debts, while despair increaseth
them. What though you have found no treasure, nor
has any rich relation left you a legacy, Diligence is the
mother of good luck, and God gives all things to in-
dustry. Then plough deep while sluggards sleep, and
you shall have corn to sell and to keep. Work while
it is called to-day, for you know not how much you
may be hindered to-morrow. One to-day is worth two
to-morrows, as Poor Richard says ; and further, Never
leave that till to-morrow, which you can do to-day. If
you were a servant, would you not be ashamed that
a good master should catch you idle ? Are you then
your own master ? Be ashamed to catch yourself idle,
when there is so much to be done for yourself, your
family, your country, and your king. Handle your tools
without mittens ; remember, that The cat in gloves
catches no mice, as Poor Richard says. It is true there
is much to be done, and perhaps you are weak-handed ;
but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects ;
for Constant dropping wears away stones ; and By dili-
gence and patience the mouse ate in two the cable ; and
Little strokes fell great oaks.

MISCELLANEOUS. 97

" Methinks I hear some of you say, * Must a man
afford himself no leisure 1 ' I will tell thee, my friend,
what Poor Richard says, Employ thy time well, if thou
meanest to gain leisure ; and, since thou art not sure o
a minute, throw not away an hour. Leisure is time
for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent
man will obtain, but the lazy man never ; for A life
of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. Many,
idthout labor, would live by their wits only, but they
break for want of stock ; whereas industry gives com-
fort, and plenty, and respect Fly pleasures, and they
will follow you. The diligent spinner has a large shift ;
and now I have a sheep and a cow, everybody bids me
good morrow.

"II. But with our industry we must likewise be
steady, settled, and careful, and oversee our own
affairs with our own eyes, and not trust too much to
others ; for, as Poor Richard says, . . .

I never saw an oft-removed tree,

Nor yet an oft-removed family,

That throve so well as those that settled be.

And again, Three removes are as bad as a fire ; and
again, Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee ; and
again, If you woidd have your business done, go ; if not,
send. And again,

He that by the plough would thrive,
Himself must cither hold or drive.

And again, The eye of a master will do more work
than both his hands ; and again, Want of care does us
more damage than want of knowledge ; and again, JYbt
to oversee workmen, is to leave them your purse open.
Trusting too much to others' care is the ruin of many ;
for In the affairs of this world men are saved, not by
faith, but by the want of it ; but a man's own care is
profitable ; for, If you would have a faithful servant, and

VOL. II. 13 I

98 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

one that you like, seme yourself. Jl little neglect may
breed great mischief; for want of a nail the shoe was
lost ; for want of a shoe the horse was lost ; and for
want of -a, horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and
slain by the enemy ; all for want of a little care about
a horse-shoe nail.

"III. So much for industry, my friends, and atten-
tion to one's own business ; but to these we must
add frugality, if we would make our industry more
certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not
how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the
grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last. Jl fat
kitchen makes a lean will ; andj

Many estates are spent in the getting,

Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting,

And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as
of getting. The Indies have not made Spain rich,
because her outgoes are greater than her incomes.

"Away then with your expensive follies, and you
will not then have so much cause to complain of hard
tunes, heavy taxes, and chargeable families; for

Women and wine, game and deceit,

Make the wealth small and the toant great.

And further, What maintains one vice would bring up
two children. You may think, perhaps, that a little
tea, or a little punch now and then, diet a little more
costly, clothes a little finer, and a little entertainment
now and then, can be no great matter; but remem-
ber, Many a little makes a mickle. Beware of little
expenses ; Jl small leak will sink a great ship, as Poor
Richard says ; and again, WTio dainties love, shall
beggars prove ; and moreover, Fools make feasts, and
wise men eat them.

MISCELLANEOUS. 99

" Here you are all got together at this sale of fineries
and knick-knacks. You call them goods ; but, if you do
not take care, they will prove evils to some of you. You
expect they will be sold cheap, and perhaps they may
for less than they cost ; but, if you have no occasion
for them, they must be dear to you. Remember what
Poor Richard says; Buy what thou hast no need of,
and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries. C And
again, Jit a great pennyworth pause a while. / He
means, that perhaps the cheapness is apparentTonly,
and not real; or the bargain, by straitening thee in
thy business, may do thee more harm than good.
For in another place he says, Many have been ruined
by buying good pennyworths. Again, It is foolish to
lay out money in a purchase of repentance ; and yet
this folly is practised every day at auctions, for want
of minding the Almanac. Many a one, for the sake
of finery on the back, have gone with a hungry belly
and half-starved their families. Silks and satins, scarlet
and velvets, put out the kitchen fire, as Poor Richard
says.

" These are not the necessaries of life ; they can
scarcely be called the conveniences; and yet, only
because they look pretty, how many want to have
them ! By these, and other extravagances, the genteel
are reduced to poverty, and forced to borrow of those
whom they formerly despised, but who, through in-
dustry and frugality, have maintained their standing;
in which case it appears plainly, that A ploughman
on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees, as
Poor Richard says. |_ Perhaps they have had a small
estate left them, which they knew not the getting of;
they think, It is day, and will never be night ; that a
little to be spent out of so much is not worth minding ;
but Always taking out of the meal-tub, and never putting

100 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

in, soon comes to the bottom, as Poor Richard says ; and
then, When the well is dry, they know the worth of
water. '* But this they might have known before, if they
had taken his advice. If you would know the value of
money, go and try to borrow some ; for he that goes
a borrowing goes a sorrowing, as Poor Richard says ;
and indeed so does he that lends to such people, when
he goes to get it in again, f Poor Dick further advises,
and says,

Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse ;
Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse. I

JAnd again, Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, and
a great deal more saucy. When you have bought one
fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appear-
ance may be all of a piece ; but Pqor Dick says, It is
easier to suppress the first desire, than to satisfy all
that follow it. And it is as truly folly for the poor to
ape the rich, as for the frog to swell in order to equal
the ox.

Vessels large may venture more,
But little boats should keep near shore.

It is, however, a folly soon punished; for, as Poor
Richard says, Pride that dines on vanity, sups on con-
tempt. Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Pov-
erty, and supped with Infamy. And, after all, of what
use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is
risked, so much is suffered ? It cannot promote health,
nor ease pain ; it makes no increase of merit in the
person ; it creates envy ; it hastens misfortune.

"But what madness must it be to run in debt for
these superfluities ? We are offered by the terms of
this sale, six months' credit ; and that, perhaps, has
induced some of us to attend it, because we cannot
spare the ready money, and hope now to be fine with-
out it. But, ah ! think what you do when you run in

MISCELLANEOUS. 101

debt; you give to another power over your liberty.
If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed
to see your creditor; you will be in fear when you
speak to him; you will make poor, pitiful, sneaking
excuses, and, by degrees, come to lose your veracity,
and sink into base, downright lying; for The second
vice is lying) the first is running in debt, as Poor
Richard says ; and again, to the same purpose, Lying
rides upon Debt's back; Whereas a free-born English-
man ought not to be ashamed nor afraid to see or
speak to any man living. But poverty often deprives
a man of all spirit and virtue. It is hard for an empty
bag to stand upright.

"What would you think of that prince, or of that
government, who should issue an edict forbidding you
to dress like a gentleman or gentlewoman, on pain of
imprisonment or servitude? Would you not say that
you were free, have a right to dress as you please, and
that such an edict would be a breach of your privileges,
and such a government tyrannical ? And yet you are
about to put yourself under such tyranny, when you
run in debt for such dress! Your creditor has au-
thority, at his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty,
by confining you in gaol till you shall be able to pay
him. When you have got your bargain, you may,
perhaps, think little of payment ; but, as Poor Richard
says, Creditors have better memories than debtors ; cre-
ditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set
days and times. The day comes round before you are
aware, and the demand is made before you are pre-
pared to satisfy it ; or, if you bear your debt in mind,
the term, which at first seemed so long, will, as it
lessens, appear extremely short. Time will seem to
have added wings to his heels as well as his shoulders.
; Those Imve a short Lent, who owe money to be paid

i*

102 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

at Easter. At present, perhaps, you may think your-
selves in thriving circumstances, and that you can bear
a little extravagance without injury ; but

For age and want save while you may ;
No morning sun lasts a whole day.

Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever, while
you live, expense is constant and certain ; and It is
easier to build two chimneys, than to keep one in fuel,
as Poor Richard says ; so, Rather go to bed supperless,
than rise in debt.

Get wliat you can, and what you get hold;

' Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.

And, when you have got the Philosopher's stone, sure
you will no longer complain of bad times, or the diffi-
culty of paying taxes.

" IV. This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wis-
dom ; but, after all, do not depend too much upon your
own industry, and frugality, and prudence, though ex-
cellent things ; for they may all be blasted, without the
blessing of Heaven ; and, therefore, ask that blessing
humbly, and be not uncharitable to those that at pres-
ent seem to want it, but comfort and help them.
Remember, Job suffered, and was afterwards pros-
perous.

"And now, to conclude, Experience keeps a dear
school, but fools will learn in no other, as Poor Richard
says, and scarce in that ; for, it is true, We may give
advice, but we, cannot give conduct. However, remem-
ber this, They that will not be counselled, cannot be
helped; and further, that, If you will not hear Reason,
she will surely rap your knuckles, as Poor Richard says."

Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The
people heard it, and approved the doctrine ; and imme-
diately practised the contrary, just as if it had been a
common sermon; for the auction opened, and they

MISCELLANEOUS. 103

began to buy extravagantly. I found the good man
had thoroughly studied my Almanacs, and digested all
I had dropped on these topics during the course of
twenty-five years. The frequent mention he made of
me must have tired any one else ; but my vanity was
wonderfully delighted with it, though I was conscious
that not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own; which
he ascribed to me, but rather the gleanings that I had
made of the sense of all ages and nations. However,
I resolved to be the better for the echo of it; and,
though I had at first determined to buy stuff for a new
coat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little
longer. Reader, if thou wilt do the same, thy profit
will be as great as mine. I am, as ever, thine to serve
thee,

RICHARD SAUJVDERS.

OBSERVATIONS ON MAYZ, OR INDIAN CORN.

IT is remarked in North America, that the English
farmers, when they first arrive there, finding a soil and
climate proper for the husbandry they have been accus-
tomed to, and particularly suitable for raising wheat,
they despise and neglect the culture of mayz,* or In-
dian corn ; but, observing the advantage it affords their
neighbours, the older inhabitants, they by degrees get
more and more into the practice of raising it ; and the
face of the country shows, from time to time, that the
culture of that grain goes on visibly augmenting.

The inducements are, -the many different ways in
which it may be prepared, so as to afford a wholesome

* This word seems to have no settled orthography. It is written
nayz, mai:, maize. The last is, perhaps, the most usual. — EDITOR.

104 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

and pleasing nourishment to men and other animals.
1st. The family can begin to make use of it before the
time of full harvest ; for the tender green ears, stripped
of their leaves, and roasted by a quick fire till the grain
is brown, and eaten with a little salt or butter, are a
delicacy. 2dly. When the grain is ripe and harder, the
ears, boiled in their leaves, and eaten with butter, are
also good and agreeable food. The tender green grains,
dried, may be kept all the year, and, mixed with green
haricots* also dried, make at any time a pleasing dish,
being first soaked some hours in water, and then boiled.
When the grain is ripe and hard, there are also several
ways of using it. One is, to soak it all night in a
lessive or lye, and then pound it in a large wooden
mortar with a wooden pestle ; the skin of each grain
is by that means skinned off, and the farinaceous part
left whole, which, being boiled, swells into a white soft
pulp, and eaten \vith milk, or with butter and sugar,
is delicious.f The dry grain is also sometimes ground
loosely, so as to be broke into pieces of the size of
rice, and being winnowed to separate the bran, it is
then boiled and eaten with turkeys or other fowls, as
rice. Ground into a finer meal, they make of it by
boiling a hasty-pudding, or bouilli, to be eaten with
milk, or with butter and sugar ; this resembles what the
Italians call polenta. They make of the same meal,
with water and salt, a hasty cake, which, being stuck
against a hoe or other flat iron, is placed erect before
the fire, and so baked, to be used as bread. Broth
is also agreeably thickened with the same meal. They
also parch it in this manner. An iron pot is filled with
sand, and set on the fire till the sand is very hot. Two

* Kidney beans.

| Called hominy, and much used in the Southern States, but seldom
in New England. — EDITOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 105

or three pounds of the grain are then thrown in, and
well mixed with the sand by stirring. Each grain
bursts and throws out a white substance of twice its
bigness. The sand is separated by a wire sieve, and
returned into the pot, to be again heated and repeat
the operation with fresh grain. That which is parched
is pounded to a powder in mortars. This, being sifted,
will keep long for use. An Indian will travel far and
subsist long on a small bag of it, taking only six or eight
ounces of it per day, mixed with water.

The flour of mayz, mixed with that of wheat, makes
excellent bread, sweeter and more agreeable than that
of -wheat alone.* To feed horses, it is good to soak
the grain twelve hours ; they mash it easier with their
teeth, and it yields them more nourishment. The
leaves, stripped off the stalks after the grain is ripe, and
tied up in bundles when dry, are excellent forage for
horses, cows, &c. The stalks, pressed like sugar-cane,
yield a sweet juice, which, being fermented and dis-
tilled, yields an excellent spirit ; boiled without fermen-
tation, it affords a pleasant syrup. In Mexico, fields
are sown with it thick, that multitudes of small stalks
may arise, which, being cut from time to time like
asparagus, are served in deserts, and their sweet juice
extracted in the mouth by chewing them. The meal
wetted is excellent food for young chickens, and the
whole grain for grown fowls.

* Mixed with rye flour or meal, it is not less palatable or nutritious.
This mixture forms the common brown bread of New England. — EDITOR.

VOL. II. 14

106 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

PRECAUTIONS TO BE USED BY THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT
TO UNDERTAKE A SEA VOYAGE.*

WHEN you intend to take a long voyage, nothing is
better than to keep it a secret till the moment of your
departure. Without this, you will be continually in-
terrupted and tormented by visits from friends and
acquaintances, who not only make you lose your valu-
able time, but make you forget a thousand things,
which you wish to remember ; so that, when you are
embarked, and fairly at sea, you recollect, with much
uneasiness, affairs which you have not terminated, ac-
counts that you have not settled, and a number of
things which you proposed to carry with you, and
which you find the want of every moment. Would
it not be attended with the best consequences to reform
such a custom, and to suffer a traveller, without de-
ranging him, to make his preparations in quietness, to
set apart a few days, when these are finished, to take
leave of his friends, and to receive their good wishes
for his happy return 1

It is not always in one's power to choose a captain ;
though great part of the pleasure and happiness of the
passage depends upon this choice, and though one
must for a time be confined to his company, and be
in some measure under his command. If he is a social,
sensible man, obliging, and of a good disposition, you
will be so much the happier. One sometimes meets
with people of this description, but they are not com-
mon ; however, if yours be not of this number, if he
be a good seaman, attentive, careful, and active in the
management of his vessel, you must dispense with the
rest, for these are essential qualities.

* The date of this piece is uncertain, but it was probably written
during the author's residence in England. — EDITOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 107

Whatever right you may have, by your agreement
with him, to the provisions he has taken on board for
the use of the passengers, it is always proper to have
some private store, which you may make use of occa-
sionally. You ought, therefore, to provide good water,
that of the ship being often bad ; but you must put
it into bottles, without which you cannot expect to
preserve it sweet. You ought also to cany with you
good tea, ground coffee, chocolate, wine of that sort
which you like best, cider, dried raisins, almonds,
sugar, capillaire, citrons, rum, eggs dipped in oil, port-
able soup, bread twice baked. With regard to poultry,
it is almost useless to carry any with you, unless you
resolve to undertake the office of feeding and fattening
them yourself. With the little care, which is taken of
them on board ship, they are almost all sickly, and
their flesh is as tough as leather.

All sailors entertain an opinion, which has undoubt-
edly originated formerly from a want of water, and
when it has been found necessary to be sparing of it,
that poultry never know when they have drunk
enough; and that when water is given them at dis-
cretion, they generally kill themselves by drinking be-
yond measure. In consequence of this opinion, they
give them water only once in two days, and even then
in small quantities ; but as they pour this water into
troughs inclining on one side, which occasions it to
run to the lower part, it thence happens that they are
obliged to mount one upon the back of another in
order to reach it; and there are some which cannot
even dip their beaks in it. Thus continually tantalized
and tormented by thirst, they are unable to digest their
food, which is very dry, and they soon fall sick and
die. Some of them are found thus every morning,
and are thrown into the sea; whilst those which are

108 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

killed for the table are scarcely fit to be eaten. To
remedy this inconvenience, it will be necessary to
divide their troughs into small compartments, in such
a manner that each of them may be capable of con-
taining water ; but this is seldom or never done. On
this account sheep and hogs are to be considered as
the best fresh provision that one can have at sea;
mutton there being in general very good, and pork
excellent.

It may happen that some of the provisions and
stores, which I have recommended, may become al-
most useless, by the care which the captain has taken
to lay in a proper stock ; but in such a case you may
dispose of it to relieve the poor passengers, who, pay-
ing less for their passage, are stowed among the com-
mon sailors, and have no right to the captain's pro-
visions, except such part of them as is used for feeding
the crew. These passengers are sometimes sick,
melancholy, and dejected ; and there are often women
and children among them, neither of whom have any
opportunity of procuring those things which I have
mentioned, and of which, perhaps, they have the
greatest need. By distributing amongst them a part
of your superfluity, you may be of the greatest assist-
ance to them. You may restore their health, save
their lives, and in short render them happy; which
always affords the liveliest sensation to a feeling mind.

The most disagreeable thing at sea is the cookery ;
for there is not, properly speaking, any professed cook
on board. The worst sailor is generally chosen for
that purpose, who for the most part is equally dirty.
Hence comes the proverb used among the English
sailors, that God sends meat, and the Devil sends cooks.
Those, however, wrho have a better opinion of Provi-
dence, will think otherwise. Knowing that sea air,

MISCELLANEOUS. 109

and the exercise or motion, which they receive from
the rolling of the ship, have a wonderful effect in
whetting the appetite, they will say that Providence
has given sailors bad cooks to prevent them from eating
too much; or that, knowing they would have bad
cooks, he has given them a good appetite to prevent
them from dying with hunger. However, if you have
no confidence in these succours of Providence, you
may yourself, with a lamp and a boiler, by the help
of a little spirits of wine, prepare some food, such as
soup, hash, &,c. A small oven made of tin plate is
not a bad piece of furniture ; your servant may roast
in it a piece of mutton or pork. If you are ever
tempted to eat salt beef, which is often very good,
you will find that cider is the best liquor to quench
the thirst generally caused by salt meat or salt fish.
Sea biscuit, which is too hard for the teeth of some
people, may be softened by steeping it; but bread
double-baked is the best ; for being made of good loaf-
bread cut into slices, and baked a second time, it
readily imbibes water, becomes soft, and is easily
digested ; it consequently forms excellent nourishment,
much superior to that of biscuit, which has not been
fermented.

I must here observe, that this double-baked bread
was originally the real biscuit prepared to keep at sea ;
for the word biscuit, in French, signifies twice baked.*
Pease often boil badly, and do not become soft; in
such case, by putting a two-pound shot into the kettle,
the rolling of the vessel, by means of this bullet, will
convert the pease into a kind of porridge, like mustard.

Having often seen soup, when put upon the table
at sea in broad, flat dishes, thrown out on every side

* It is derived from bis, again, and cuit, baked.
VOL. II. J

110 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

by the rolling of the vessel, I have wished that our
tinmen would make our soup-basins with divisions or
compartments, forming small plates, proper for contain-
ing soup for one person only. By this disposition, the
soup, in an extraordinary roll, would not be thrown
out of the plate, and would not fall into the breasts
of those who are at table, and scald them.

Having entertained you with these things of little
importance, permit me now to conclude with some
general reflections upon navigation.

When navigation is employed only for transporting
necessary provisions from one country, where they
abound, to another where they are wanting ; when by
this it prevents famines, which were so frequent and
so fatal before it was invented and became so com-
mon ; we cannot help considering it as one of those
arts which contribute most to the happiness of man-
kind. But when it is employed to transport things
of no utility, or articles merely of luxury, it is then
uncertain whether the advantages resulting from it are
sufficient to counterbalance the misfortunes it occasions
by exposing the lives of so many individuals upon
the vast ocean. And when it is used to plunder ves-
sels and transport slaves, it is evidently only the dread-
ful means of increasing those calamities, which afflict
human nature.

One is astonished to think on the number of vessels
and men, who are daily exposed in going to bring tea
from China, coffee from Arabia, and sugar and tobacco
from America; all, commodities which our ancestors
lived very well without. The sugar trade employs
nearly a thousand vessels, and that of tobacco almost
the same number. With regard to the utility of to-
bacco, little can be said; and, with regard to sugar,
how much more meritorious would it be to sacrifice

MISCELLANEOUS. HI

ihe momentary pleasure which we receive from drink-
ing it once or twice a day in our tea, than to encourage
the numberless cruelties that are continually exercised
in order to procure it us !

A celebrated French moralist said, that, when he
considered the wars which we foment in Africa to get
negroes, the great number who of course perish in
these wars ; the multitude of those wretches who die
in their passage, by disease, bad air, and bad pro-
visions; and, lastly, how many perish by the cruel
treatment they meet with in a state of slavery ; when
he saw a bit of sugar, he could not help imagining it
to be covered with spots of human blood. But, had
he added to these considerations the wars which we
carry on against one another, to take and retake the
islands that produce this commodity, he would not have
seen the sugar simply spotted with blood, he would
have beheld it entirely tinged with it.

These wars make the maritime powers of Europe,
and the inhabitants of Paris and London pay much
dearer for their sugar than those of Vienna, though
they are almost three hundred leagues distant from the
sea. A pound of sugar, indeed, costs the former not
only the price which they give for it, but also what
they pay in taxes, necessary to support the fleets and
armies, which serve to defend and protect the countries
that produce it.

112 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

TOLERATION IN OLD ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND *

SIR,

I understand from the public papers, that in the
debates on the bill for relieving the Dissenters in the
point of subscription to the church articles, sundry
reflections were thrown out against that people, import-
ing, " that they themselves are of a persecuting, intol-
lerant spirit; for that, when they had the superiority,
they persecuted the church, and still persecute it in
America, where they compel its members to pay taxes
for maintaining the Presbyterian or Independent wor-
ship, and, at the same time, refuse them a toleration
in the full exercise of their religion by the administra-
tions of a bishop."

If we look back into history for the character of the
present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have
not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers
of persecution. The primitive Christians thought per-
secution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised
it on one another. The first Protestants of the church
of England blamed persecution in the Romish church,
but practised it against the Puritans. These found
it wrong in the bishops, but fell into the same practice
themselves, both here and in New England. To ac-
count for this we should remember, that • the doctrine
of toleration was not then known, or had not prevailed
in the world. Persecution was, therefore, not so much

* This piece was first printed in The London Packet, June 3d, 1772,
and seems to relate to topics of public interest at that time. — EDITOR.
[The spirited writer of the Two Letters to the Prelates, republished it in
an appendix to that pamphlet, without, however, naming Dr. Franklin as
the author, hut expressing it to be the production of " a gentleman
highly respected in the literary world." — B. V.]

MISCELLANEOUS. 113

the fault of the sect as of the times. It was not in
those days deemed wrong in itself. The general
opinion was only, that those who are in error ought
not to persecute the truth ; but the possessors of truth
were in the right to persecute error, in order to destroy
it. Thus every sect, believing itself possessed of all
truth, and that every tenet differing from theirs was
error, conceived, that, when the power was in their
hands, persecution was a duty required of them by
that God, whom they supposed to be offended with
heresy. By degrees more moderate and more modest
sentiments have taken place in the Christian world;
and among Protestants, particularly, all disclaim perse-
cution, none vindicate it, and but few practise it. We
should then cease to reproach each other with what
was done by our ancestors, but judge of the present
character of sects or churches by their present conduct
only.

Now, to determine on the justice of this charge
against the present Dissenters, particularly those in
America, let us consider the following facts. They
went from England to establish a new country for
themselves, at their own expense, where they might
enjoy the free exercise of religion in their own way.
When they had purchased the territory of the natives,
they granted the lands out in townships, requiring for it
neither purchase-money nor quit-rent, but this condition
only to be complied with, that the freeholders should
for ever support a gospel minister, (meaning probably
one of the governing sects,) and a free-school, within
the township. Thus what is commonly called Pres-
byterianism became the established religion of that
country. All went on well in this way while the same
religious opinions were general, the support of minister
and school being raised by a proportionate tax on the

VOL. II. 15 J*

114 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

lands. But, in process of time some becoming Qua-
kers,* some Baptists, and, of late years, some returning
to the church of England (through the laudable en-
deavours, and a proper application^ of their funds, by
the Society for Propagating the Gospel), objections
were made to the payment of a tax appropriated to
the support of a church they disapproved and had
forsaken.

The civil magistrates, however, continued for a time
to collect and apply the tax according to the original
laws, which remained in force ; and they did it more
freely, as thinking it just and equitable, that the holders
of lands should pay what was contracted to be paid
when they were granted, as the only consideration for
the grant, and what had been considered by all sub-
sequent purchasers as a perpetual incumbrance on the
estate, bought therefore at a proportionably cheaper
rate ; a payment which it was thought no honest man
ought to avoid, under the pretence of his having
changed his religious persuasion. And this, I suppose,
is one of the best grounds of demanding tithes of
Dissenters now in England. But the practice being

* No person appeared in New England, who professed the opinion
of the Quakers, until 1656 ; that is, about thirty-six years after the first
settling of the colony ; when Mary Fisher and Ann Austin came from
Barbadoes ; and, soon after, nine others arrived in the ship Speedwell
from London. They were successful in their preaching ; and the pro-
vincial government, wishing to keep the colony free from them, attempted
to send away such as they discovered, and prevent the arrival of others.
Securities, fines, banishment, imprisonment, and corporal punishments
were instituted for this purpose ; but with so little effect, that at last
" a law was made for punishing with death, all such as should return
into the jurisdiction after banishment A few were hanged." See
History of the British Dominions, 4to. 1773, pp. 118, 120. — B. V.

f They were to spread the Gospel, and maintain a learned and or-
thodox clergy, where ministers were wanted or ill provided ; administer-
ing God's word and sacraments, and preventing atheism, infidelity,
popery, and idolatry. — B. V.

MISCELLANEOUS. 115

clamored against by the Episcopalians as persecution,
the legislature of the province of Massachusetts Bay,
near thirty years since, passed an act for their relief,
requiring indeed the tax to be paid as usual, but
directing that the several sums levied from members
of the Church of England, should be paid over to the
minister of that church, with whom such members
usually attended divine worship, which minister had
power given him to receive, and on occasion to recover
the same by law.

It seems that the legislature considered the end of
the tax was to secure and improve the morals of the
people, and promote their happiness, by supporting
among them the public worship of God, and the
preaching of the Gospel ; that where particular people
fancied a particular mode, that mode might probably,
therefore, be of most use to those people ; and that, if
the good was done, it was not so material in what
mode or by whom it was done. The consideration
that their brethren, the Dissenters in England, were
still compelled to pay tithes to the clergy of the church,
had not weight enough with the legislature to prevent
this moderate act, which still continues in full force;
and I hope no uncharitable conduct of the church
towards the Dissenters will ever provoke them to
repeal it.

With regard to a bishop, I know not upon what
grounds the Dissenters, either here or in America, are
charged with refusing the benefit of such an officer
to the church in that country. Here they seem to
have naturally no concern in the affair. There they
have no power to prevent it, if government should
think fit to send one. They would probably dislike,
indeed, to see an order of men established among
them, from whose persecutions their fathers fled into

116 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

that wilderness, and whose future domination they
may possibly fear, not knowing that their natures are
changed. But the non-appointment of bishops for
America seems to arise from another quarter. The
same wisdom of government, probably, that prevents
the sitting of convocations, and forbids by noli-prosequis
the persecution of Dissenters for non-subscription,
avoids establishing bishops where the minds of the
people are not yet prepared to receive them cordially,
lest the public peace should be endangered.*

And now let us see how this persecution account
stands between the parties.

In New England, where the legislative bodies are
almost to a man dissenters from the church of Eng-
land,

1. There is no test to prevent churchmen from
holding offices.

2. The sons of churchmen have the full benefit of
the universities.

3. The taxes for support of public worship, when
paid by churchmen, are given to the Episcopal minister.

In Old England,

1. Dissenters are excluded from all offices of profit
and honor.

2. The benefits of education in the universities are
appropriated to the sons of churchmen.

3. The clergy of the Dissenters receive none of the
tithes paid by their people, who must be at the

* No bishops were appointed in America till after the Revolution.
Previously to that time the ecclesiastical affairs of the Protestant Epis-
copal Church in this country were under the charge of the Bishop of
London. At length, in the year 1786, an act of Parliament was passed,
empowering English bishops to consecrate to that office persons, who
might be subjects or citizens of other countries. In the following year,
William White and Samuel Prevost were consecrated at Lambeth
Palace, the one as Bishop of Pennsylvania, the other of New York. —
EDITOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 117

additional charge of maintaining their own separate
worship.

But it is said, the Dissenters of America oppose the
introduction of a bishop.

In fact, it is not alone the Dissenters there that give
opposition (if not encouraging must be termed oppos-
ing}, but the laity in general dislike the project, and
some even of the clergy. The inhabitants of Virginia
are almost all Episcopalians. The church is fully
established there, and the Council and General Assem-
bly are perhaps to a man its members; yet, when
lately, at a meeting of the clergy, a resolution was
taken to apply for a bishop, against which several
however protested, the Assembly of the province at
their next meeting expressed their disapprobation of
the thing in the strongest manner, by unanimously
ordering the thanks of the House to the protesters;
for many of the American laity of the church think it
some advantage, whether their own young men come to
England for ordination and improve themselves at the
same time with the learned here, or the congregations
are supplied by Englishmen, who have had the benefit
of education in English universities, and are ordained
before they come abroad. They do not, therefore, see
the necessity of a bishop merely for ordination, and
confirmation is deemed among them a ceremony of no
very great importance, since few seek it in England,
where bishops are in plenty. These sentiments pre-
vail with many churchmen there, not to promote ^
design which they think must sooner or later saddle
them with great expenses to support it. As to the
Dissenters, their minds might probably be more con-
ciliated to the measure, if the bishops here should, in
their wisdom and goodness, think fit to set their sacred
character in a more friendly light, by dropping their

118 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

opposition to the Dissenters' application for relief in
subscription, and declaring their willingness that Dis-
senters should be capable of offices, enjoy the benefit
of education in the universities, and the privilege of
appropriating their tithes to the support of their own
clergy. In all these points of toleration they appear
far behind the present Dissenters of New England,
and it may seem to some a step below the dignity
of bishops to follow the example of such inferiors. I
do not however despair of their doing it some time or
other, since nothing of the kind is too hard for true
Christian humility. I am, Sir, yours, &,c.

A NEW ENGLAND MAN.

A PARABLE AGAINST PERSECUTION,

IN IMITATION OF SCRIPTURE LANGUAGE.

THIS Parable was printed in the Boston Chronicle, 1768, and six
years afterwards in Lord Kames's Sketches of the History of Man.
Lord Kames introduced it with the following prefatory remark. " It
was communicated to me by Dr. Franklin of Philadelphia, a man who
makes a great figure in the learned world ; and who would still make
a greater figure for benevolence and candor, were virtue as much re-
garded in this declining age as knowledge." From Lord Kames's
work it was taken by Mr. Vaughan, and included in his edition of
Franklin's writings. From that time it was repeatedly reprinted,
and much admired, as illustrating a beautiful moral, and as being a
remarkabb imitation of Scripture language.

Although Lord Kames does not say, that Dr. Franklin was the
author of the Parable, yet, from the manner in which he speaks
of it, this inference was naturally drawn; and some degree of
surprise was expressed, when the discovery was made, not long
afterwards, that there was a similar story in Jeremy Taylor's

MISCELLANEOUS. 119

LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING. Curiosity was then excited, as to its
real origin, for Taylor vaguely says, that he found it in " the Jews'
books." Upon this hint, however, the learned commenced their
researches, and the storehouses of Talmudic, Cabalistic, and Rab-
binical lore were explored in vain. No such story could be found in
any Jewish writing. It was at length discovered in the dedication
of a book, which was translated by George Gentius from a Jewish
work, and which appeared at Amsterdam in the year 1651. This
dedication is written in Latin. The part relating to the Parable
was selected and published, without the name of the person who
had made the discovery, in The Repository, a British periodical
journal, which was issued monthly from the London press. The
extract is contained in the number for May, 1788. Considering
the importance, which has since been attached to the history of
this Parable, it seems not amiss to insert the Latin version of
Gentius in this place.

" Illustre tradit nobilissinms autor Sadus veneranda? antiquitatis
exemplum, Abrahamum patriarcham, hospital itatis gloria celebra-
tum, vix sibi felix faustumque credidisse hospitium, nisi externum
aliquem, tanquam aliquod prcesidium domi, excepisset hospitem,
quern omni officiorum genere coleret. Aliquando, cum hospitem
domi non haberet, foris eum quaesiturus campestria petiit. Forte
virum quemdam, senectute gravem, itinere fessum, sub arbore re-
cumbentem conspicit.

" Quern comiter exceptum, domum hospitem deducit, et omni
officio colit. Cum coanam appositam Abrahamus et familia ejus
a precibus auspicarentur, senex manum ad cibum protendit, nullo
religionis aut pietatis auspicio usus. Quo viso, Abrahamus eum
ita affatur ; ' Mi senex, vix decet canitiem tuam sine prsevia Numinis
veneratione cibum sumere.' Ad quae senex ; ' Ego ignicola sum,
istiusmodi morum ignarus ; nostri enim majores nullam talem me
docuere pietatem.' Ad quam vocem horrescens Abrahamus rem
sibi cum ignicola profano et a sui Numinis cultu alieno esse, eum
e vestigio et a coena remotum, ut sui consortii pestem et religionis
hostem, domo ejicit. Sed, ecce, Summus Deus Abrahamum statim
monet ; ' Quid agis, Abrahame ? Itane vero fecisse te decuit ? Ego
isti seni, quantumvis in me usque ingrato, et vitam et victum cen-
tum amplius annos dedi ; tu homini nee unam coenam dare,
unumque eum momentum ferre potes 1 ' Qua Divina voce moni-
tus, Abrahamus senem ex itinere revocatum domum reducit, et
tantis officiis, pietate, et ratione colit, ut suo exemplo ad veri Nu-
minis cultum eum perduxerit."

In the succeeding number of The Repository appeared a com-

120 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

munication relating to this subject, evidently written by a person
well acquainted with the character and habits of Dr. Franklin,
the drift of which was to show, that he never pretended to have
originated the idea of the Parable, that as an imitation it stood
on the same ground as those of Pope and other writers, and that
in this light it was eminently felicitous and successful.

" This great man, who at the same time that he was desirous
of disseminating an amiable sentiment, was an extreme lover of
pleasantry, often endeavoured to put off the parable in question
upon his acquaintance, as a portion of Scripture, and probably
thought this one of the most successful modes of circulating its
moral. This object would certainly have been defeated, had he
prefixed to the printed copies of the Parable, which he was fond
of dispersing, an intimation of its author. He therefore gave no
name whatever to it, much less his own. And often as I have
heard of his amusing himself on this occasion, I never could learn
that he ascribed to himself the merit of the invention. His good
humor constantly led him into a train of amusing stories concern-
ing the persons, who had mistaken it for Scripture, (for he had
bound it up as a leaf in his Bible, the better to impose upon them,)
which, perhaps, made the point of authorship forgotten.

" Indeed, to a man of his magnitude, the accession of fame from
this circumstance was too small to make it worth any risk. Arti-
fice must rob him of more than it could yield him ; and the gain
was temporary, while the injury, from any undue pretension, was
as permanent as his own immortal character. He was too wise
to think, that the actions of a man like himself could be hid ; or
that the accidental researches of literary men would suffer a pla-
giarism of this sort to pass undiscovered, or the good nature or
busy turn of mankind permit it to be unnoticed after its discovery.
I am told that the Parable referred to is quoted or mentioned by
Jeremy Taylor, in his Liberty of Prophesying. Possibly Dr.
Franklin heard, from some quarter or other, some general and
vague account of what has thus repeatedly appeared in print, and
improved the idea in the way we have seen; without being able
to give it back to its proper parent, and without knowing perhaps
that it claimed a parent so learned, as that your erudite corre-
spondent has pointed out."

More recently it has been found out, that the Parable is of
eastern origin. Sadus, quoted by Gentius, is the celebrated Per-
sian poet, Saadi ; and in the second book of his " Bostan " this
story is contained substantially the same as in Gentius's Dedication.
This fact was made known to Bishop Heber by Lord Teignmouth,

MISCELLANEOUS. 121

who furnished him with a translation from the Persian into English,
which is inserted among the notes to Heber's Life of Jeremy
Taylor. It is worthy of notice, that Saadi relates the story not as
his own, but as hav.'ng been told to him. Thus its fountain re-
mains yet to be ascertained.

Franklin's version was imperfectly printed from Lord Kames's
copy, whether designedly or by mistake is not known. The
division into verses was not observed, and all that follows the
eleventh verse was omitted. Mr. Vaughan restored the deficient
verses in the CORRIGENDA to his edition, since which the Parable
has usually been printed entire, although there are slight verbal
differences in several of the impressions. — EDITOR.

1. And it came to pass after these things, that Abra-
ham sat in the door of his tent, about the going down
of the sun.

2. And behold a man, bowed with age, came from
the way of the wilderness, leaning on a staff.

3. And Abraham arose and met him, and said unto
him, " Turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and
tarry all night, and thou shalt arise early on the mor-
row, and go on thy way."

4. But the man said, "Nay, for I will abide under
this tree."

5. And Abraham pressed him greatly ; so he turned,
and they went into the tent, and Abraham baked un-
leavened bread, and they did eat.

6. And when Abraham saw that the man blessed
not God, he said unto him, " Wherefore dost thou not
worship the most high God, Creator of heaven and
earth ? "

7. And the man answered and said, " I do not
worship the God thou speakest of, neither do I call
upon his name; for I have made to myself a god,
which abideth alway in mine house, and provideth
me with all things."

VOL. II. 16 K

122 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

8. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the
man, and he arose and fell upon him, and drove him
forth with blows into the wilderness.

9. And at midnight God called unto Abraham, say-
ing, "Abraham, where is the stranger?"

10. And Abraham answered and said, "Lord, he
would not worship thee, neither would he call upon
thy name ; therefore have I driven him out from before
my face into the wilderness."

11. And God said, "Have I borne with him these
hundred ninety and eight years, and nourished him,
and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against
me; and couldst not thou, that art thyself a sinner,
bear with him one night?"

12. And Abraham said, "Let not the anger of the
Lord wax hot against his servant; lo, I have sinned;
lo, I have sinned; forgive me, I pray thee."

13. And Abraham arose, and went forth into the
wilderness, and sought diligently for the man, and
found him, and returned with him to the tent; and
when he had entreated him kindly, he sent him away
on the morrow with gifts.

14. And God spake again unto Abraham, saying,
" For this thy sin shall thy seed be afflicted four hun-
dred years in a strange land;

15. "But for thy repentance will I deliver them;
and they shall come forth with power, and with glad-
ness of heart, and with much substance." *

* On the subject of this Parable, see also a letter from Dr. Franklin
to Mr. Vaughan, dated November 2d, 1789, in which the author says,
that he never published it, " nor claimed any other credit from it, than
>vhat related to the style, and the addition of the concluding threatening
and promise." — EDITOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 123

A PARABLE ON BROTHERLY LOVE.

1. IN those days there was no worker of iron in all
the land. And the merchants of Midian passed by
with their camels, bearing spices, and myrrh, and balm,
and wares of iron.

2. And Reuben bought an axe of the Ishmaelite
merchants, which he prized highly, for there was none
in his father's house.

3. And Simeon said unto Reuben his brother,
" Lend me, I pray thee, thine axe." But he refused,
and would not.

4. And Levi also said unto him, " My brother, lend
me, I pray thee, thine axe ; " and he refused him also.

5. Then came Judah unto Reuben, and entreated
him, saying, "Lo, thou lovest me, and I have always
loved thee ; do not refuse me the use of thine axe."

6. But Reuben turned from him, and refused him
likewise.

7. Now it came to pass, that Reuben hewed timber
on the bank of the river, and his axe fell therein, and
he could by no means find it.

8. But Simeon, Levi, and Judah had sent a mes-
senger after the Ishmaelites with money, and had
bought for themselves each an axe.

9. Then came Reuben unto Simeon, and said, " Lo,
I have lost mine axe, and my work is unfinished ; lend
me thine, I pray thee."

1 0. And Simeon answered him, saying, " Thou
wouldest not lend me thine axe, therefore will I not
lend thee mine."

11. Then went he unto Levi, and said unto him,
"My brother, thou knowest my loss and my neces-
sity; lend me, I pray thee, thine axe."

124 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

12. And Levi reproached him, saying, " Thou
wouldest not lend me thine axe when I desired it,
but I will be better than thou, and will lend thee
mine."

13.' And Reuben was grieved at the rebuke of Levi,
and being ashamed, turned from him, and took not
the axe, but sought his brother Judah.

14. And as he drew near, Judah beheld his coun-
tenance as it were covered with grief and shame ; and
he prevented him, saying, "My brother, I know thy
loss; but why should it trouble thee? Lo, have I
not an axe that will serve both thee and me? Take
it, I pray thee, and use it as thine own."

15. And Reuben fell on his neck, and kissed him,
with tears, saying, "Thy kindness is great, but thy
goodness hi forgiving me is greater. Thou art indeed
my brother, and whilst I live, will I surely love thee."

1 6. And Judah said, " Let us also love our other
brethren; behold, are we not all of one blood?"

17. And Joseph saw these things, and reported them
to his father Jacob.

18 And Jacob said, "Reuben did wrong, but he
repented. Simeon also did wrong ; and Levi was not
altogether blameless.

19. "But the heart of Judah is princely. Judah
hath the soul of a king. His father's children shall bow
down before him, and he shall rule over his brethren."

MISCELLANEOUS. 125

SKETCH OP AN ENGLISH SCHOOL.

FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE PHILADELPHIA

ACADEMY.

IT is expected that every scholar, to be admitted
into this school, be at least able to pronounce and
divide the syllables in reading, and to write a legible
hand. None to be received that are under years

of age.

FIRST OR LOWEST CLASS.

Let the first class learn the English Grammar Rules,
and at the same time let particular care be taken to
improve them in orthography. Perhaps the latter is
best done by pairing the scholars ; two of those nearest
equal in their spelling to be put together. Let these
strive for victory ; each propounding ten words every
day to the other to be spelled. He that spells truly
most of the other's words is victor for that day ; he
that is victor most days in a month, to obtain a prize,
a pretty, neat book of some kind, useful in their future
studies. This method fixes the attention of children
extremely to the orthography of words, and makes
them good spellers very early. It is a shame for a man
to be so ignorant of this little art in his own language,
as to be perpetually confounding words of like sound
and different significations ; the consciousness of which
defect makes some men, otherwise of good learning
and understanding, averse to writing even a common
letter.

Let the pieces read by the scholars in this class be
short; such as Croxall's Fables, and little stories. In
giving the lesson, let it be read to them ; let the mean-
is*

126 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

ing of the difficult words in it be explained to them;
and let them con over by themselves before they are
called to read to the master or usher, who is to take
particular care that they do not read too fast, and
that they duly observe the stops and pauses. A
vocabulary of the most usual difficult words might be
formed for their use, with explanations ; and they might
daily get a few of those words and explanations by
heart, which would a little exercise their memories;
or at least they might write a number of them in a
small book for the purpose, which would help to fix
the meaning of those words in their minds, and at the
same time furnish every one with a little dictionary for
his future use.

THE SECOND CLASS

To be taught reading with attention, and with proper
modulations of the voice, according to the sentiment
and the subject.

Some short pieces, not exceeding the length of a
Spectator, to be given this class for lessons, (and some
of the easier Spectators would be very suitable for the
purpose.) These lessons might be given every night
as tasks, the scholars to study them against the morn-
ing. Let it then be required of them to give an ac-
count, first, of the parts of speech, and construction of
one or two sentences. This will oblige them to recur
frequently to their Grammar, and fix its principal rules
in their memory. Next, of the intention of the writer,
or the scope of the piece, the meaning of each sentence,
and of every uncommon word. This would early ac-
quaint them with the meanbg and force of words, and
give them that most necessary habit of reading with
attention.

The master then to read the piece with the proper

MISCELLANEOUS. 127

modulations of voice, due emphasis, and suitable action,
where action is required; and put the youth on imi-
tating his manner.

Where the author has used an expression not the
best, let it be pointed out; and let his beauties be
particularly remarked to the youth.

Let the lessons for reading be varied, that the youth
may be made acquainted with good styles of all kinds,
in prose and verse, and the proper manner of reading
each kind; sometimes a well-told story, a piece of a
sermon, a general's speech to his soldiers, a speech in
a tragedy, some part of a comedy, an ode, a satire, a
letter, blank verse, Hudibrastic, heroic, &,c. But let
such lessons be chosen for reading, as contain some
useful instruction, whereby the understanding or morals
of the youth may at the same time be improved.

It is required that they should first study and under-
stand the lessons, before they are put upon reading
them properly ; to which end each boy should have an
English dictionary, to help him over difficulties. When
our boys read English to us, we are apt to imagine
they understand what they read, because we do, and
because it is their mother tongue. But they often
read, as parrots speak, knowing little or nothing of the
meaning. And it is impossible a reader should give
the due modulation to his voice, and pronounce prop-
erly, unless his understanding goes before his tongue,
and makes him master of the sentiment. Accustoming
boys to read aloud what they do not first understand,
is the cause of those even, set tones, so common
among readers, which, when they have once got a habit
of using, they find so difficult to correct ; by which
means, among fifty readers, we scarcely find a good
one. For want of good reading, pieces published with
a view to influence the minds of men, for their own

128 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

or the public benefit, lose half their force. Were there
but one good reader in a neighbourhood, a public
orator might be heard throughout a nation with the
same advantages, and have the same effect upon his
audience, as if they stood within the reach of his voice.

THE THIRD CLASS

To be taught speaking properly and gracefully, which
is near akin to good reading, and naturally follows it
in the studies of youth. Let the scholars of this class
begin with learning the elements of rhetoric from some
short system, so as to be able to give an account of
the most useful tropes and figures. Let all their bad
habits of speaking, all offences against good grammar,
all corrupt or foreign accents, and all improper phrases,
be pointed out to them. Short speeches from the
Roman, or other history, or from the parliamentary
debates, might be got by heart, and delivered with
the proper action, &,c. Speeches and scenes in our
best tragedies and comedies (avoiding every thing that
could injure the morals of youth) might likewise be
got by rote, and the boys exercised in delivering or
acting them; great care being taken to form their
manner after the truest models.

For their further improvement, and a little to vary
their studies, let them now begin to read history, after
having got by heart a short table of the principal
epochas in chronology. They may begin with Rollin's
Ancient and Roman histories, and proceed at proper
hours, as they go through the subsequent classes, with
the best histories of our own nation and colonies. Let
emulation be excited among the boys by giving, week-
ly, little prizes, or other small encouragements, to those
who are able to give the best account of what they
have read, as to time, places, names of persons, &c.

MISCELLANEOUS. 129

This will make them read with attention, and imprint
the history well in their memories. In remarking on
the history, the master will have fine opportunities of
instilling instruction of various kinds, and improving the
morals as well as the understandings of youth.

The natural and mechanic history, contained in the
Spectacle de la Nature, might also be begun in this
class, and continued through the subsequent classes,
by other books of the same kind; for, next to the
knowledge of duty, this kind of knowledge is certainly
the most useful, as well as the most entertaining. The
merchant may thereby be enabled better to understand
many commodities in trade; the handicraftsman to
improve his business, by new instruments, mixtures,
and materials ; and frequently hints are given for new
manufactures, or new methods of improving land, that
may be set on foot greatly to the advantage of a
country.

THE FOURTH CLASS

To be taught composition. Writing one's own lan-
guage well is the next necessary accomplishment after
good speaking. It is the WTiting-master's business to
take care that the boys make fair characters, and place
them straight and even in the lines ; but to form their
style, and even to take care that the stops and capitals
are properly disposed, is the part of the English master.
The boys should be put on writing letters to each other
on any common occurrences, and on various subjects,
imaginary business, &,c., containing little stories, ac-
counts of their late reading, what parts of authors
please them, and why; letters of congratulation, of
compliment, of request, of thanks, of recommenda-
tion, of admonition, of consolation, of expostulation, ex-
cuse, &c. In these they should be taught to express

VOL. II. 17

130 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

themselves clearly, concisely, and naturally, without af-
fected words or high-flown phrases. All their letters to
pass through the master's hand, who is to point out the
faults, advise the corrections, and commend what he
finds right. Some of the best letters published in our
own language, as Sir William Temple's, those of Pope
and his friends, and some others, might be set before
the youth as models, their beauties pointed out and
explained by the master, the letters themselves tran-
scribed by the scholar.

Dr. Johnson's Ethices Elementa, or First Principles
of Morality, may now be read by the scholars, and
explained by the master, to lay a solid foundation of
virtue and piety in their minds. And as this class
continues the reading of history, let them now, at
proper hours, receive some further instruction in chro-
nology, and in that part of geography (from the mathe-
matical master), which is necessary to understand the
maps and globes. They should also be acquainted
with the modern names of the places they find men-
tioned in ancient writers. The exercises of good read-
ing, and proper speaking, still continued at suitable
times.

FIFTH CLASS.

To improve the youth in composition, they may now,
besides continuing to write letters, begin to write little
essays in prose, and sometimes in verse ; not to make
them poets, but for this reason, that nothing acquaints a
lad so speedily with variety of expression as the neces-
sity of finding such words and phrases as will suit the
measure, sound, and rhyme of verse, and at the same
time well express the sentiment. These essays should
all pass under the master's eye, who will point out their
faults, and put the writer on correcting them. Where

MISCELLANEOUS. 131

the judgment is not ripe enough for forming new
essays, let the sentiments of a Spectator be given, and
required to be clothed in the scholar's own words;
or the circumstances of some good story, the scholar to
find expression. Let them be put sometimes on
abridging a paragraph of a diffuse author; sometimes
on dilating or amplifying what is wrote more closely.
And now let Dr. Johnson's Metica, or First Principles
of Human Knowledge, containing a logic, or art of rea-
soning, &,c. be read by the youth, and the difficulties
that may occur to them be explained by the master.
The reading of history, and the exercises of good read-
ing and just speaking, still continued.

SIXTH CLASS.

In this class, besides continuing the studies of the
preceding in history, rhetoric, logic, moral and natural
philosophy, the best English authors may be read and
explained ; as Tillotson, Milton, Locke, Addison, Pope,
Swift, the higher papers in the Spectator and Guardian,
the best translations of Homer, Virgil, and Horace, of
Telemachus, Travels of Cyrus, &,c.

Once a year let there be public exercises in the
hall, the trustees and citizens present. Then let
fine gilt books be given as prizes to such boys as
distinguish themselves and excel the others in any
branch of learning, making three degrees of compari-
son ; giving the best prize to him that performs best,
a less valuable one to him that comes up next to the
best, and another to the third; commendations, en-
couragement, and advice to the rest ; keeping up their
hopes, that by industry they may excel another time.
The names of those that obtain the prize to be yearly
printed in a list.

132 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

The hours of each day are to be divided and dis-
posed in such a manner, as that some classes may be
with the writing-master, improving their hands ; others
with the mathematical master, learning arithmetic, ac-
counts, geography, use of the globes, drawing, me-
chanics, &c. ; while the rest are in the English school,
under the English master's care.

Thus instructed, youth will come out of this school
fitted for learning any business, calling, or profession,
except such wherein languages are required; and,
though unacquainted with any ancient or foreign
tongue, they will be masters of their own, which is of
more immediate and general use, and withal will have
attained many other valuable accomplishments ; the
time usually spent in acquiring those languages, often
without success, being here employed in laying such a
foundation of knowledge and ability as, properly im-
proved, may qualify them to pass through and execute
the several offices of civil life, with advantage and
reputation to themselves and country.

MISCELLANEOUS. 133

OBSERVATIONS

RELATIVE TO THE INTENTIONS OF THE ORIGINAL FOUNDERS OF THE
ACADEMY IN PHILADELPHIA. JUNE, 1789.

As the English school in the Academy has been, and
still continues to be, a subject of dispute and discus-
sion among the trustees since the restitution of the
charter, and it has been proposed that we should have
some regard to the original intention of the founders hi
establishing that school, I beg leave, for your informa-
tion, to lay before you what I know of that matter
originally, and what I find on the minutes relating to
it, by which it will appear how far the design of that
school has been adhered to or neglected.

Having acquired some little reputation among my
fellow -citizens, by projecting the public library in 1732,
and obtaining the subscriptions by which it was estab-
lished ; and by proposing and promoting, with success,
sundry other schemes of utility in 1749 ; I was en-
couraged to hazard another project, that of a public
education for our youth. As in the scheme of the
library I had provided only for English books, so in
this new scheme my icfeas went no further than to
procure the means of a good English education. A
number of my friends, to whom I communicated the
proposal, concurred with me in these ideas; but Mr.
Allen, Mr. Francis, Mr. Peters, and some other persons
of wealth and learning, whose subscriptions and coun-
tenance we should need, being of opinion that it ought
to include the learned languages, I submitted my
judgment to theirs, retaining however a strong pre-
possession in favor of my first plan, and resolving to

VOL. II. L

134 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

preserve as much of it as I could, and to nourish the
English school by every means in my power.

Before I went about to procure subscriptions, I
thought it proper to prepare the minds of the people
by a pamphlet, which I wrote, and printed, and dis-
tributed with my newspapers gratis. The title was,
Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Penn-
sylvania. I happen to have preserved one of them ;
and, by reading a few passages, it will appear how
much the English learning was insisted upon in it;
and I had good reasons to know that this was a pre-
vailing part of the motives for subscribing with most
of the original benefactors.* I met with but few

* That the Rector be a man of good understanding, good morals,
diligent and patient, learned in the languages and sciences, and a correct,
pure speaker and writer of the English tongue ; to have such tutors under
him as shall be necessary.

The English language might be taught by grammar ; in which some
of our best writers, as Tillotson, Addison, Pope, Algernon Sidney, Cato's
Letters, &c. should be classics ; the styles principally to be cultivated
being the dear and the concise. Reading should also be taught, and
pronouncing properly, distinctly, emphatically ; not with an even tone,
which under-does, nor a theatrical, which over-does nature.

Mr. Locke, speaking of Grammar, (p. 252,) says, that " To those, the
greatest part of whose business in this world is to be done with their
tongue, and with their pens, it is convenient, if not necessary, that they
should speak properly and correctly, whereby they may let their thoughts
into other men's minds the more easily, and with the greater impression.
Upon this account it is, that any sort of speaking, so as will make him
be understood, is not thought enough for a gentleman. He ought to
study grammar, among the other helps of spealdng well ; but it must be
the grammar of his own tongue, of the language he uses, that he may
understand his own country speech nicely, and speak it properly, without
shocking the ears of those it is addressed to with solecisms and offensive
irregularities. And to this purpose grammar is necessary ; but it is the
grammar only of their own proper tongues, and to those who would take
pains in cultivating their language, and perfecting their styles. Whether
all gentlemen should not do this, I leave to be considered ; since the
want of propriety and grammatical exactness is thought very misbecoming
one of that rank, and usually draws on one, guilty of such faults, the
imputation of having had a lower breeding and worse company than suit
with his quality. If this be so, (as I suppose it is,) it will be matter of

MISCELLANEOUS. 135

refusals in soliciting the subscriptions ; and the sum was
the more considerable, as I had put the contribution on
this footing, that it was not to be immediate, and the
whole paid at once, but in parts, a fifth annually during

wonder, why young gentlemen are forced to learn the grammars of
foreign and dead languages, and are never once told of the grammar of
their own tongues. They do not so much as know there is any such thing,
much less is it made their business to be instructed in it Nor is their
own language ever proposed to them as worthy their care and cultivating,
though they have daily use of it, and are not seldom in the future course
of their lives judged of by their handsome or awkward way of express-
ing themselves in it. Whereas the languages, whose grammars they
have been so much employed in, are such as probably they shall scarce
ever speak or write ; or, if upon occasion this should happen, they should
be excused for the mistakes and faults they make in it. Would not a
Chinese, who took notice of this way of breeding, be apt to imagine, that
all our young gentlemen were designed to be teachers and professors of
the dead languages of foreign countries, and not to be men of business
in their own?"

The same author adds, (p. 255,) " That if grammar ought to be taught
at any time, it must be to one that can speak the language already ;
how else can he be taught the grammar of it ? This at least is evident
from the practice of the wise and learned nations among the ancients.
They made it a part of education, to cultivate their oivn, not foreign
tongues. The Greeks counted all other nations barbarous, and had a
contempt for their languages. And though the Greek learning grew in
credit among the Romans towards the end of their commonwealth, yet
it was the Roman tongue that was made the study of their youth. Their
own language they were to make use of, and therefore it was their own
language they were instructed and exercised in." And, (p. 281,) " There
can scarce be a greater defect," says he, " in a gentleman, than not to
express himself well either in writing or speaking. But yet I think 1
may ask the reader, whether he doth not know a great many, who live
upon their estates, and so, with the name, should have the qualities of
gentlemen, who cannot so much as tell a story as they should, much
less speak clearly and persuasively in any business. This I think not
to be so much their fault as the fault of their education" Thus far
Locke.

Monsieur Rollin reckons the neglect of teaching their own tongue a
great fault in the French universities. He spends great part of his first
volume of Belles Lettres on that subject ; and lays down some excellent
rules or methods of teaching French to Frenchmen grammatically, and
making them masters therein, which are very applicable to our language,
but too long to be inserted here. He practised them on the youth under
his care with great success.

136 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

five years. To put ihe machine in motion, twenty-
four of the principal subscribers agreed to take upon
themselves the trust; and a set of constitutions for
their government, and for the regulation of the schools,

Mr. Hutchinson, (Dial. p. 297,) says, " To perfect them in the knowl-
edge of their mother tongue, they should learn it in the grammatical
way, that they not only speak it purely, but be able both to correct their
own idiom, and afterwards enrich the language on the same foundation."

Dr. Turnbull, in his Observations on a Liberal Education, says, (p. 262.)
"The Greeks, perhaps, made more early advances in the most useful
sciences than any youth have done since, chiefly on this account, that
they studied no other language but their own. This, no doubt, saved
them very much time ; but they applied themselves carefully to the study
of their own language, and were early able to speak and write it in the
greatest perfection. The Roman youth, though they learned the Greek,
did not neglect their own tongue, but studied it more carefully than we
now do Greek and Latin, without giving ourselves any trouble about our
own tongue."

Monsieur Simon, in an elegant Discourse of his among the Memoirs
of the Academy of Belles Lettres at Paris, speaking of the stress the
Romans laid on purity of language and graceful pronunciation, adds,
" May I here make a reflection on the education we commonly give our
children ? It is very remote from the precepts I have mentioned. Hath
the child arrived to six or seven years of age, he mixes with a herd of
ill-bred boys at school, where, under the pretext of teaching him Latin,
no regard is had to his mother tongue. And what happens ? What we
see every day. A young gentleman of eighteen, who has had this
education, cannot read. For to articulate the words, and join them
together, I do not call reading, unless one can pronounce well, observe
all the proper stops, vary the voice, express the sentiment, and read
with a delicate intelligence. Nor can he speak a jot better. A proof
of this is, that he cannot write ten lines without committing gross faults ;
and, because he did not learn his own language well in lu's early years,
he will never know it well. I except a few, who, being afterwards en-
gaged by their profession, or their natural taste, cultivate their minds
by study. And yet even they, if they attempt to write, will find by the
labor composition costs them, what a loss it is, not to have learned their
language in the proper season. Education among the Romans was upon
a quite different footing. Masters of rhetoric taught them early the
principles, the difficulties, the beauties, the subtilties, the depths, the
riches of their own language. When they went from these schools, they
were perfect masters of it, they were never at a loss for proper expres-
sions ; and I am much deceived if it was not owing to this, that they
produced such excellent works with so marvellous facility."

Pliny, in his letter to a lady on choosing a tutor for her son, speaks

MISCELLANEOUS. 137

were drawn up by Mr. Francis and myself, which
were signed by us all, and printed, that the public
might know what was to be expected. I wrote also
a paper, entitled, Idea of an English School, which

of it as the most material thing in his education, that he should have
a good Latin master of rhetoric, and recommends Julius Genitor for. his
eloquent, open, and plain faculty of speaking. He does not advise her
to a Greek master of rhetoric, though the Greeks were famous for that
science ; but to a Latin master, because Latin was the boy's mother
tongue. In the above quotation from Monsieur Simon, we see what was
the office and duty of the master of rhetoric.

To form their style, they should be put on writing letters to each
other, making abstracts of what they read ; or writing the same things
in their own words ; telling or writing stories lately read, in their own
expressions. All to be revised and corrected by the tutor, who should
give his reasons, explain the force and import of words, &c.

This Mr. Locke recommends, (Educ. p. 284,) and says ; " The writing
of letters has so much to do in all the occurrences of human life, that
no gentleman can avoid showing himself in this kind of writing. Occa-
sions will daily force him to make this use of his pen, which, besides the
consequence that, in his affairs, the well or ill managing it often draws
after it, always lays him open to a severer examination of his breeding,
sense, and abilities, than oral discourses, whose transient faults, dying
for the most part with the sound that gives them life, and so not subject
to a strict review, more easily escape observation and censure."

He adds ; " Had the methods of education been directed to their right
end, one would have thought this so necessary a part could not have
been neglected, whilst themes and verses in Latin, of no use at all, were
so constantly everywhere pressed, to the racking of children's invention
beyond their strength, and hindering their cheerful progress by unnatural
difficulties. But custom has so ordained it, and who dares disobey ? And
would it not be very unreasonable to require of a learned country-school-
master (who has all the tropes and figures in Farnaby's Rhetoric at his
fingers' ends) to teach his scholar to express hinself handsomely in
English, when it appears to be so little his business or thought, that
the boy's mother (despised, 'tis like, as illiterate for not having read a
system of logic or rhetoric) outdoes him in it ?

" To speak and write correctly gives a grace, and gains a favorable
attention to what one has to say. And since 'tis English that an English-
man will have constant use of, that is the language he should chiefly
cultivate, and wherein most care should be taken to polish and perfect his
style. To speak or write better Latin than English may make a man be
talked of; but he will find it more to his purpose to express himself well
in his own tongue, that he uses every moment, than to have the vain
commendations of others for a very insignificant quality. This I find
VOL. II. 18 L*

138 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

was printed, and afterwards annexed to Mr. Peters'
Sermon, preached at the opening of the Academy.
This paper was said to be for the consideration of
the trustees ; and the expectation of the public, that

universally neglected, nor no care taken anywhere to improve young
men. in their own language, that they may thoroughly understand and
be masters of it. If any one among us have a facility or purity more
than ordinary in his mother tongue, it is owing to chance, or his genius,
or any thing, rather than to his education or any care of his teacher. To
mind what English his pupil speaks or writes, is below the dignity of
one bred up among Greek and Latin, though he have but little of them
himself. These are the learned languages, fit only for learned men to
meddle with and teach ; English is the language of the illiterate vulgar.
Though the great men among the Romans were daily exercising them-
selves in their own language ; and we find yet upon the record the
names of orators who taught some of their Emperors Latin, though it
were their mother tongue. T is plain the Greeks were yet more nice
in theirs. All other speech was barbarous to them but their own, and
no foreign language appears to have been studied or valued amongst that
learned and acute people ; though it be past doubt that they borrowed
their learning and philosophy from abroad."

To the same purpose writes a person of eminent learning in a letter
to Dr. Turnbull. " Nothing, certainly," says he, " can be of more service
to mankind than a right method of educating the youth, and I should be

glad to hear to give an example of the great advantage it would

be to the rising age, and to our nation. When our public schools were
first established, the knowledge of Latin was thought learning ; and he
that had a tolerable skill in two or three languages, though his mind was
not enlightened by any real knowledge, was a profound scholar. But it
is not so at present ; and people confess, that men may have obtained a
perfection in these, and yet continue deeply ignorant. The. Greek educa-
tion was of another kind," (which he describes in several particulars, and
adds,) " they studied to write their own tongue more accurately than we
do Latin and Greek. But where is English taught at present ? Who
thinks it of use to study correctly that language which he is to use
every day in his life, be his station ever so high, or ever so insignificant.
It is in this the nobility and gentry defend their country, and serve
their prince in parliament ; in this the lawyers plead, the divines instruct,
and all ranks of people write their letters, and transact all their affairs ;
and yet who thinks it worth his learning to write this even accurately, not
to say politely ? Every one is suffered to form his style by chance ; to
imitate the first wretched model which falls in his way, before he knows
what is faulty, or can relish the beauties of a just simplicity. Few think
their children qualified for a trade till they have been whipt at a Latin
school for five or six years, to learn a little of that which they are

MISCELLANEOUS. 139

the idea might in a great measure be carried into exe-
cution, contributed to render the subscriptions more
liberal as well as more general. I mention my con-
cern in these transactions, to show the opportunity I
had of being well informed in the points I am relating.

These constitutions are upon record in your minutes ;
and, although the Latin and Greek are by them to be
taught, the original idea of a complete English educa-
tion was not forgotten, as will appear by the following
extracts.

Page 1. "The English tongue is to be taught gram-
matically, and as a language."

Page 4. In reciting the qualification of the person
to be appointed rector, it is said, " that great regard
is to be had to his polite speaking, tenting, and tinder-
standing the English tongue"

" The rector was to have two hundred pounds a
year, for which he was to be obliged to teach twenty
boys, without any assistance, (and twenty-five more for
every usher provided for him,) the Latin and Greek
languages ; and at the same time instruct them in
history, geography, chronology, logic, rhetoric, and the
English tongue"

" The rector was also, on all occasions consistent

obliged to forget ; when in those years right education would have
unproved their minds, and taught them to acquire habits of writing their
own language easily under right direction ; and this would have been
useful to them as long as they lived." — Introd. pp. 3-5.

To form their pronunciation, they may be put on making declamations,
repeating speeches, delivering orations, &c. ; the tutor assisting at the
rehearsals, teaching, advising, correcting their accent, &c. By pronun-
ciation is here meant, the proper modulation of the voice, to suit the
subject with due emphasis, action, &c. In delivering a discourse in
public, designed to persuade, the manner, perhaps, contributes more to
success, than either the matter or method. Yet the two latter seem to
engross the attention of most preachers and other public speakers, and the
former to be almost totally neglected.

140 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

with his duty in the Latin school, to assist the English
master in improving the youth under his care"

Page 5. "The trustees shall, with all convenient
speed, contract with any person that offers, whom they
shall judge most capable of teaching the English tongue
grammatically and as a language, history, geography,
chronology, logic, and oratory; which person shall be
styled the English master"

The English master was to have one hundred pounds
a year, for which he was to teach, without any assist-
ance, forty scholars the English tongue grammatically ;
and at the same time instruct them in history, geogra-
phy, chronology, logic, and oratory ; and sixty scholars
more for every usher provided for him.

It is to be observed in this place, that here are
two distinct courses in the same study, that is, of the
same branches of science, viz. history, geography,
chronology, logic, and oratory, to be carried on at
the same time, but not by the same tutor or master.
The English master is to teach his scholars all those
branches of science, and also the English tongue
grammatically, as a language. The Latin master is
to teach the same sciences to his boys, besides the
Greek and Latin. He was also to assist the English
master occasionally, without which, and his general
care in the government of the schools, the giving him
double salary seems not well accounted for. But here
are plainly two distinct schools or courses of education
provided for. The Latin master was not to teach the
English scholars logic, rhetoric, &,c. ; that was the duty
of the English master; but he was to teach those
sciences to the Latin scholars. We shall see, hereafter,
how easily this original plan was defeated and departed
from.

When the constitutions were first drawn, blanks

MISCELLANEOUS. 141

were left for the salaries, and for the number of boys
the Latin master was to teach. The first instance of
partiality, in favor of the Latin part of the institution,
was in giving the title of rector to the Latin master,
and no title to the English one. But the most striking
instance was, when we met to sign, and the blanks
were first to be filled up, the votes of a majority earned
it to give twice as much salary to the Latin master
as to the English, and yet require twice as much duty
from the English master as from the Latin, viz. 200/.
to the Latin master to teach twenty boys; 100/. to
the English master to teach forty ! However, the
trustees who voted these salaries being themselves by
far the greatest subscribers, though not the most nu-
merous, it was thought they had a kind of right to
predominate in money matters; and those, who had
wished an equal regard might have been shown to
both schools, submitted, though not without regret, and
at times some little complaining, which, with their not
being able in nine months to find a proper person for
English master, who would undertake the office for
so low a salary, induced the trustees at length, viz.
in July, 1750, to offer 50/. more.

Another instance of the partiality above mentioned
was in the March preceding, when 100/. sterling was
voted to buy Latin and Greek books, maps, drafts,
and instruments for the use of the Academy, and
nothing for the English books.

The great part of the subscribers, who had the
English education chiefly in view, were however
soothed into a submission to these partialities, chiefly
by the expectation given them by the constitution, viz.
that the trustees would make it their pleasure, and in
some degree their business, to visit the Academy often,
to encourage and countenance the youth, look on the

142 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

students as in some measure their own children, treat
them with familiarity and affection; and, when they
have behaved well, gone through their studies, and are
to enter the world, the trustees shall zealously unite,
and make all the interest that can be made, to pro-
mote and establish them, whether in business, offices,
marriages, or any other thing for their advantage, pre-
ferable to all other persons whatsoever, even of equal
merit.

These splendid promises dazzled the eyes of the
public. The trustees were most of them the principal
gentlemen of the province. Children taught in other
schools had no reason to expect such powerful patron-
age. The subscribers had placed such entire con-
fidence in them as to leave themselves no power of
changing them, if their conduct of the plan should be
disapproved; and so, in hopes of the best, all these
partialities were submitted to.

Near a year passed before a proper person was
found to take charge of the English school. At length
Mr. Dove, who had been many years master of a school
in England, and had come hither with an apparatus
for giving lectures in experimental philosophy, was pre-
vailed with by me, after his lectures were finished, to
accept that employment for the salary offered, though
he thought it too scanty. He had a good voice, read
perfectly well, with proper accent and just pronuncia-
tion, and his method of communicating habits of the
same kind to his pupils was this. When he gave a
lesson to one of them, he always first read it to him
aloud, with all the different modulations of voice, that
the subject and sense required. These the scholars,
in studying and repeating the lesson, naturally endeav-
oured to imitate; and it was really surprising to see
how soon they caught his manner, which convinced

MISCELLANEOUS. 143

me and others who frequently attended his school, that,
though bad tones and manners in reading are, when
once acquired, rarely, with difficulty, if ever cured, yet,
when none have been already formed, good ones are
as easily learned as bad. In a few weeks after open-
ing his school, the trustees were invited to hear the
scholars read and recite. The parents and relations
of the boys also attended. The performances were
surprisingly good, and of course were admired and
applauded ; and the English school thereby acquired
such reputation, that the number of Mr. Dove's scholars
soon amounted to upwards of ninety, which number
did not diminish as long as he continued master, viz.
upwards of two years ; but, he finding the salary in-
sufficient, and having set up a school for girls in his
own house to supply the deficiency, and quitting the
boys' school somewhat before the hour to attend the
girls, the trustees disapproved of his so doing, and he
quitted their employment, continued his girls' school,
and opened one for boys on his own account. The
trustees provided another English master; but, though
a good man, yet not possessing the talents of an
English schoolmaster in the same perfection with Mr.
Dove, the school diminished daily, and soon was found
to have but about forty scholars left. The perform-
ances of the boys, in reading and speaking, were no
longer so brilliant ; the trustees of course had not the
same pleasure in hearing them, and the monthly visita-
tions, which had so long afforded a delightful enter-
tainment to large audiences, became less and less
attended, and at length discontinued ; and the English
school has never since recovered its original reputation.
Thus, by our injudiciously starving the English part
of our scheme of education, we only saved fifty pounds
a year, which was required as an additional salary to

144 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

an acknowledged excellent English master, which
would have equalled his encouragement to that of the
Latin master; I say, by saving the 50/. we lost fifty
scholars, which would have been 200/. a year, and
defeated, besides, one great end of the institution.

In the mean time our favors were showered upon
the Latin part ; the number of teachers was increased,
and their salaries from time to time augmented, till, if
I mistake not, they amounted in the whole to more than
600/. a year, though the scholars hardly ever exceeded
sixty; so that each scholar cost the funds 10/. per
annum, while he paid but 4/., which was a loss of 61.
every one of them.

The monthly visitations of the schools by the trustees
having been long neglected, the omission was com-
plained of by the parents as a breach of original prom-
ise; whereupon the trustees, July llth, 1755, made it
a law, that " they should meet on the second Tuesday
in every month at the Academy, to visit the schools,
examine the scholars, hear their public exercises, &c."
This good law, however, like many others, was not long
observed; for I find by a minute of December 14th,
1756, that the examination of the schools by the
trustees had been long neglected, and it was agreed
that it should thereafter be done on the first Monday
in every month; and yet, notwithstanding this new
rule, the neglect returned, so that we are informed, by
another minute of January 13th, 1761, "that for five
months past there had not been one meeting of the
trustees." In the course of fourteen years several of
the original trustees, who had been disposed to favor
the English school, deceased, and others not so favor-
able were chosen to supply their places ; however, it
appears by the minutes, that the remainder had some-
times weight enough to recall the attention of their

MISCELLANEOUS. 145

colleagues to that school, and obtain acknowledgments
of the unjust neglect it had been treated with ; of this
the following extracts from the minutes are authentic
proofs, viz. (Minute Book, Vol. I., February 8th, 1763;)
" The state of the English school was taken into con-
sideration, and it was observed, that Mr. Kinnersley's
time was entirely taken up in teaching little boys the
elements of the English language (this is what it
dwindled into, a school similar to those kept by old
women, who teach children their letters); and that
speaking and rehearsing in public were totally disused,
to the great prejudice of the other scholars and stu-
dents, and contrary to the original design of the trustees
in the forming of that school ; and, as this was a matter
of great importance, it was particularly recommended
to be fully considered by the trustees at their next
meeting." At their next meeting it was not considered ;
but this minute contains full proof of the fact, that the
English education had been neglected, and it contains
an acknowledgment that the conduct of the English
school was contrary to the original design of the
trustees in forming it.

In the same book of minutes we find the following,
of April 12th, 1763. "The state of the English school
was again taken into consideration; and it was the
opinion of the trustees that the ORIGINAL DESIGN
should be prosecuted, of teaching the scholars (of that
and the other schools) the elegance of the English
language, and giving them a proper pronunciation ; and
that the old method of hearing them read and repeat in
public should be again used. And a committee was
appointed to confer with Mr. Kinnersley how this might
best be done, as well as what assistance would be
necessary to give Mr. Kinnersley to enable him to

VOL. II. 19 M

146 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

attend this necessary service, which was indeed the
PROPER BUSINESS of his professorship."

In this minute we have another acknowledgment of
what was the original design of the English school;
but here are some words thrown in to countenance an
innovation, which had been for some time practised.
The words are, "and the other schools." Originally,
by the constitutions, the rector was to teach the Latin
scholars their English. The words of the constitution
are, " The rector shall be obliged, without the assistance
of any usher, to teach twenty scholars the Latin and
Greek languages, and the English tongue." To en-
able him to do this, we have seen that some of his
qualifications, indispensably required, were, his polite
speaking, writing, and understanding the English tongue.
Having these, he was enjoined, on all occasions con-
sistent with his other duties, to assist the English
master in improving the boys under his care; but
there is not a word obliging the English master to
teach the Latin boys English. However, the Latin
masters, either unable to do it, or unwilling to take
the trouble, had got him up among them, and employed
s© much of his time, that this minute owns he could
not, without farther assistance, attend the necessary
service of his own school, which, as the minute ex-
pressly says, " was indeed the proper business of his
professorship."

Notwithstanding this good resolution of the trustees,
it seems the execution of it was neglected ; and, the
public not being satisfied, they were again haunted
by the friends of the children with the old complaint,
that the original constitutions were not complied with,
in regard to the English school. Their situation was
unpleasant. On the one hand, there were still remain-

MISCELLANEOUS. 147

ing some of the first trustees, who were friends to the
scheme of English education, and these would now
and then be remarking that it was neglected, and
would be moving for a reformation; the constitutions
at the same time, staring the trustees in the face, gave
weight to these remarks. On the other hand, the
Latinists were combined to decry the English school
as useless. It was without example, they said, as
indeed they still say, that a school for teaching the
vulgar tongue, and the sciences in that tongue, was
ever joined with a college, and that the Latin masters
were fully competent to teach the English.

I will not say that the Latinists looked on every
expense upon the English school as so far disabling
the trustees from augmenting their salaries, and there-
fore regarding it with an evil eye ; but, when I find
the minutes constantly filled with their applications for
higher wages, I cannot but see their great regard for
money matters, and suspect a little their using their
interest and influence to prevail with the trustees net
to encourage that school. And, indeed, the following
minute is so different in spirit and sentiment from that
last recited, that one cannot avoid concluding that some
extraordinary pains must have been taken with the
trustees between the two meetings of April 12th and
June 13th, to produce a resolution so very different,
which here follows in this minute, viz. "June 13th, 1763 ;
Some of the parents of the children in the Academy
having complained that their children were not taught
to speak and read in public, and having requested that
this useful part of education might be more attended
to, Mr. Kinnersley was called in, and desired to give
an account of what was done in this branch of his
duty ; and he declared that this was well taught, not
only in the English school, which was more immediately

148 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

under his care, but in the philosophy classes, regularly
every Monday afternoon, and as often at other times as
his other business would permit. And it not appearing
to the trustees that any more could at present be done,
without partiality and great inconvenience, and that this
was all that was ever proposed to be done, they did
not incline to make any alteration, or to lay any farther
burthen on Mr. Kinnersley." Note here, that the
English school had not for some years preceding been
visited by the trustees. If it had, they would have
known the state of it without making this inquiry of
the master. They might have judged, whether the
children more immediately under his care were in truth
well taught, without taking his word for it, as it appears
they did. But it seems he had a merit, which, when
he pleaded it, effectually excused him. He spent his
time when out of the English school in instructing the
philosophy classes who were of the Latin part of the
institution. Therefore they did not think proper to lay
any further burthen upon him.

It is a little difficult to conceive how these trustees
could bring themselves to declare, that " No more could
be done in the English school than was then done,
and that it was all that was ever proposed to be done ;"
when their preceding minute declares, that " the origi-
nal design was teaching scholars the elegance of the
English language, and giving them a proper pronun-
ciation; and that hearing them read and repeat in
public was the old method, and should be again used."
And, certainly, the method that had been used might
be again used, if the trustees had thought fit to order
Mr. Kinnersley to attend his own school, and not spend
his time in the philosophy classes, where his duty did
not require his attendance. What the apprehended
partiality was, which the minute mentions, does not

MISCELLANEOUS. 149

appear, and cannot easily be imagined ; and the great
inconvenience of obliging him to attend his own school
could only be depriving the Latinists of his assistance,
to which they had no right.

The trustees may possibly have supposed, that by
this resolution they had precluded all future attempts
to trouble them with respect to their conduct of the
English school. The parents indeed, despairing of any
reformation, withdrew their children, and placed them
in private schools, of which several now appeared in
the city, professing to teach what had been promised
to be taught in the Academy; and they have since
flourished and increased by the scholars the Academy
might have had, if it had performed its engagements.
But the public was not satisfied ; and we find, five
years after, the English school appearing again, after
five years' silence, haunting the trustees like an evil
conscience, and reminding them of their failure in duty.
For, of their meetings Jan. 19th and 26th, 1768, we find
these minutes. "Jan. 19th, 1768; It having been re-
marked, that the schools suffer in the public esteem
by the discontinuance of public speaking, a special
meeting is to be called on Tuesday next, to consider
the state of the English school, and to regulate such
matters as may be necessary." " Jan. 26th ; A special
meeting. It is agreed to give Mr. Jon. Easton and
Mr. Thomas Hall, at the rate of twenty-five pounds
per annum each, for assisting Mr. Kinnersley in the
English school, and taking care of the same when he
shall be employed in teaching the students, in the phi-
losophy classes and grammar school, the art of public
speaking. A committee, Mr. Peters, Mr. Coxe, and
Mr. Duche, with the masters, was appointed to fix
rules and times for employing the youth in public
speaking. Mr. Easton and Mr. Hall are to be paid

150 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

out of a fund to be raised by some public performance
for the benefit of the college."

It appears from these minutes, 1. That the reputation
of the Academy had suffered in the public esteem by
the trustees' neglect of that school. 2. That Mr.
Kinnersley, whose sole business it was to attend it, had
been called from his duty and employed in the phi-
losophy classes and Latin grammar school, teaching the
scholars there the art of public speaking, which the
Latinists used to boast they could teach themselves.
3. That the neglect for so many years of the English
scholars, by this subtraction of their master, was now
acknowledged, and proposed to be remedied for the
future by engaging two persons, Mr. Hall and Mr.
Easton, at twenty-five pounds per annum, to take care
of those scholars, while Mr. Kinnersley was employed
among the Latinists.

Care was however taken by the trustees, not to be
at any expense for this assistance to Mr. Kinnersley ;
for Hall and Easton were only to be paid out of the
uncertain fund of money to be raised by some public
performance for the benefit of the college.

A committee was however now appointed to fix rules
and times for employing the youth in public speaking.
Whether any thing was done in consequence of these
minutes, does not appear; no report of the committee
respecting their doings being to be found on the
records, and the probability is that they did, as hereto-
fore, nothing to the purpose. For the English school
continued to decline, and the first subsequent mention
we find made of it, is in the minute of March 21st,
1769, when the design began to be entertained of
abolishing it altogether, whereby the Latinists would
get rid of an eyesore, and the trustees of what occa-
sioned them such frequent trouble. The minute is

MISCELLANEOUS. 151

this ; " The state of the English school is to be taken
into consideration at next meeting, and whether it be
proper to continue it on its present footing or not."
This consideration was, however, not taken at the next
meeting, at least nothing was concluded so as to be
minuted; nor do we find any farther mention of the
English school till the 18th of July, when the following
minute was entered ; viz. " A special meeting is ap-
pointed to be held on Monday next, and notice to be
given, that the design of this meeting is to consider
whether the English school is to be longer continued."

This special meeting was accordingly held on the
23d of July, 1769, of which date is the following
minute and resolution ; viz. " The trustees at this meet-
ing, as well as several former ones, having taken into
their serious consideration the state of the English
school, are unanimously of opinion, that, as the said
school is far from defraying the expense at which they
now support it, and not thinking that they ought to
lay out any great part of the funds intrusted to them
on this branch of education, which can so easily be
procured at other schools in this city, have resolved,
that, from and after the 17th of October next, Mr.
Kinnersley's present salary do cease, and that from
that time the said school, if he shall be inclined to
keep it, shall be on the following footing ; viz. that he
shall have the free use of the room where he now
teaches, and also the whole tuition-money arising from
the boys that may be taught by him, and that he
continue professor of English and oratory, and, as such,
have the house he lives in rent-free, in consideration
of his giving two afternoons in the week as heretofore,
for the instruction of the students belonging to the
college in public speaking, agreeable to such rules as
are or shall be made for that purpose by the trustees

152 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

and faculty. It is further ordered by this legulation,
that the boys belonging to his school fshall be still
considered as part of the youth belonging to the col-
lege, and under the same general government of the
trustees and faculty ; and such of his scholars as may
attend the mathematical or any other master having a
salary from the college, for any part of their time, shall
pay proportionably into the fund of the trustees, to be
accounted for by Mr. Kinnersley, and deducted out of
the twenty pounds per quarter now paid by the
English scholars."

The trustees hope this regulation, may be agreeable
to Mr. Kinnersley, as it proceeds entirely from the
reasons set forth above, and not from any abatement
of that esteem which they have always retained for
him, during the whole course of his services in college.

Upon this and some of the preceding minutes, may
be observed; 1. That, the English school having been
long neglected, the scholars were so diminished in
number as to be far from defraying the expense in
supporting it. 2. That, the instruction they received
there, instead of a complete English education, which
had been promised to the subscribers by the original
constitutions, were only such as might easily be pro-
cured at other schools in this city. 3. That this un-
profitableness of the English school, owing to neglect
of duty in the trustees, was now offered as a reason
for demolishing it altogether. For it was easy to see,
that, after depriving the master of his salary, he could
not long afford to continue it. 4. That if the insuffi-
ciency of the tuition-money in the English school to
pay the expense, and the ease with which the scholars
might obtain equal instruction in other schools, were
good reasons for depriving the master of his salary and
destroying that school, they were equally good for

MISCELLANEOUS. 153

dismissing the Latin masters, and sending their scholars
to other schools ; since it is notorious that the tuition-
money of the Latin school did not pay much above a
fourth part of the salaries of the masters. For such
reasons the trustees might equally well have got rid
of all the scholars and all the masters, and remained hi
full possession of all the college property, without any
future expense. 5. That by their refusing any longer
to support, instead of reforming, as they ought to have
done, the English school, they shamefully broke through
and set at nought the original constitutions, for the
due execution of which the faith of the original trustees
had been solemnly pledged to the public, and diverted
the revenues, proceeding from much of the first sub-
scriptions, to other purposes than those which had been
promised. Had the Assembly, when disposed to dis-
franchise the trustees, set their foot upon this ground,
their proceeding to declare the forfeiture would have
been more justifiable; and it may be hoped care will
now be taken not to give any future Assembly the same
handle.

It seems, however, that this unrighteous resolve did
not pass the trustees without a qualm in some of them.
For at the next meeting a reconsideration was moved,
and we find the following minute under the date of
August 1st, 1769 ; " The minute of last meeting relative
to the English school was read, and after mature
deliberation and reconsidering the same, it was voted
to stand as it is, provided it should not be found any
way repugnant to the first charter granted to the
Academy, a copy of which was ordered to be procured
out of the rolls office."

One might have thought it natural for the trustees
to have consulted this charter before they took the
resolution, and not only the first charter, but the

VOL. ii. 20

154 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

original constitutions ; but, as it seems they had lost
the instrument containing the charter, and, though it
had been printed, not one of them was furnished with
a copy to which he might refer, it is no wonder that
they had forgot the constitutions made twenty years
before, to which they do not seem to have in the least
adverted.

Probably, however, the trustees found, when they
came to examine original papers, that they could not
easily get entirely rid of the English school, and so
concluded to continue it. For I find in a law for
premiums, minuted under the date of Jan. 29th, 1770,
that the English and mathematical school is directed
to be examined the third Tuesday in July, and a pre-
mium book of the value of one dollar was to be given
to him that reads best, and understands best the
English grammar, &,c. This is very well ; but to keep
up the old partiality in favor of the Latin school, the
premium to its boys was to be of the value of two
dollars. In the premiums for best speaking, they were
indeed put upon an equality.

After reading this law for premiums, I looked forward
to the third Tuesday in July with some pleasing ex-
pectation of their effect on the examination required
for that day. But I met with only this further record
of the inattention of the trustees to their new resolu-
tions and even laws, when they contained any thing
favorable to the English school. The minute is only
this ; " July, August, September, October, no business
done."

On the 20th of November, however, I find there
was an examination of the Latin school, and premiums,
with pompous inscriptions, afterwards adjudged to Latin
scholars ; but I find no mention of any to the English,
or that they were even examined. Perhaps there

MISCELLANEOUS. 155

might have been none to examine, or the school dis-
continued; for it appears by a minute of July 21st,
following, that the provost was desired to advertise for
a master able to teach English grammatically, which
it seems was all the English master was now required
to teach, the other branches originally promised being
dropt entirely.

In October, 1772, Mr. Kinnersley resigned his pro-
fessorship, when Dr. Peters and others were appointed
to consider on what footing the English school shall
be put for the future, that a new master may be
thought of, and Mr. Willing to take care of the school
for the present at fifty pounds per annum. It is ob-
servable here that there is no mention of putting it on
its original footing, and the salary is shrunk amazingly ;
but this resignation of Mr. Kinnersley gave occasion
to one testimony of the utility of the English professor
to the institution, notwithstanding all the partiality,
neglect, slights, discouragements, and injustice that
school had suffered. We find it in the minutes of a
special meeting on the 2d of February, 1773, present
Dr. Peters, Mr. Chew, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Willing,
Mr. Trettel, and Mr. Inglis, and expressed in these
strong terms.

"The college suffers greatly since Mr. Kinnersley
left it, for want of a person to teach public speaking,
so that the present classes have not those opportunities
of learning to declaim and speak which have been of
so much use to their predecessors, and have contri-
buted greatly to raise the credit of the institution."

Here is another confession that the Latinists were
unequal to the task of teaching English eloquence,
though on occasion the contrary is still asserted.

I flatter myself, Gentlemen, that it appears by this time
pretty clearly from our own minutes, that the original

156 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

plan of the English school has been departed from;
that the subscribers to it have been disappointed and
deceived, and the faith of the trustees not kept with
them ; that the public have been frequently dissatisfied
with the conduct of the trustees, and complained of
it; that, by the niggardly treatment of good masters,
they have been driven out of the school, and the
scholars have followed, while a great loss of revenue
has been suffered by the Academy; so that the nu-
merous schools now in the city owe their rise to our
mismanagement, and that we might as well have had
the best part of the tuition-money paid into our
treasury, that now goes into private pockets ; that there
has been a constant disposition to depress the English
school in favor of the Latin ; and that every means to
procure a more equitable treatment has been rendered
ineffectual; so that no more hope remains while they
continue to have any connexion. It is, therefore, that,
wishing as much good to the Latinists as their system
can honestly procure for them, we now demand a
separation, and without desiring to injure them ; but
claiming an equitable partition of our joint stock, we
wish to execute the plan they have so long defeated,
and afford the public the means of a complete English
education.

I am the only one of the original trustees now living,
and I am just stepping into the grave myself. I am
afraid that some part of the blame incurred by the
trustees may be laid on me, for having too easily
submitted to the deviations from the constitution, and
not opposing them with sufficient zeal and earnest-
ness; though indeed my absence in foreign countries
at different times for near thirty years, tended much to
weaken my influence. To make what amends are yet
in my power, I seize this opportunity, the last I may

MISCELLANEOUS. 157

possibly have, of bearing testimony against those devia-
tions. I seem here to be surrounded by the ghosts
of my dear departed friends, beckoning and urging me
to use the only tongue now left us, in demanding that
justice to our grandchildren, that to our children has
been denied. And I hope they will not be sent away
discontented.

The origin of Latin and Greek schools among the
different nations of Europe is known to have been
this ; that until between three and four hundred years
past there were no books in any other language; all
the knowledge then contained in books, viz. the the-
ology, the jurisprudence, the physic, the art-military,
the politics, the mathematics and mechanics, the natural
and moral philosophy, the logic and rhetoric, the chem-
istry, the pharmacy, the architecture, and every other
branch of science, being in those languages, it was of
course necessary to learn them, as the gates through
which men must pass to get at that knowledge.

The books then existing were manuscript, and these
consequently so dear, that only the few wealthy in-
clined to learning could afford to purchase them. The
common people were not even at the pains of learning
to read, because, after taking that pains, they would
have nothing to read that they could understand with-
out learning the ancients' languages, nor then, without
money to purchase the manuscripts. And so few were
the learned readers sixty years after the invention of
printing, that it appears by letters still extant between
the printers in 1499, that they could not throughout
Europe find purchasers for more than 300 copies of
any ancient authors. But, printing beginning now to
make books cheap, the readers increased so much as
to make it worth while to write and print books in the
vulgar tongues. At first these were chiefly books of

VOL. II. N

158 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

devotion and little histories ; gradually several branches
of science began to appear in the common languages,
and at this day the whole body of science, consisting
not only of translations from all the valuable ancients,
but of all the new modern discoveries, is to be met
with in those languages, so that learning the ancient
for the purpose of acquiring knowledge is become
absolutely unnecessary.

But there is in mankind an unaccountable prejudice
in favor of ancient customs and habitudes, which in-
clines to a continuance of them after the circumstances,
which formerly made them useful, cease to exist. A
multitude of instances might be given, but it may
suffice to mention one. Hats were once thought an
useful part of dress; they kept the head warm and
screened it from the violent impression of the sun's
rays, and from the rain, snow, hail, &,c. Though, by
the way, this was not the more ancient opinion or
practice ; for among all the remains of antiquity, the
bustos, statues, basso-rilievos, medals, &,c., which are
infinite, there is no representation of a human figure
with a cap or hat on, nor any covering for the head,
unless it be the head of a soldier, who has a helmet ;
but that is evidently not a part of dress for health, but
as a protection from the strokes of a weapon.

At what time hats were first introduced we know
not, but in the last century they were universally worn
throughout Europe. Gradually, however, as the wear-
ing of wigs, and hair nicely dressed prevailed, the
putting on of hats was disused by genteel people, lest
the curious arrangements of the curls and powdering
should be disordered; and umbrellas began to supply
their place ; yet still our considering the hat as a part
of dress continues so far to prevail, that a man of
fashion is not thought dressed without having one, 01

MISCELLANEOUS. 159

something like one, about him, which he carries under
his arm. So that there are a multitude of the politer
people in all the courts and capital cities of Europe,
who have never, nor their fathers before them, worn
a hat otherwise than as a chapeau bras, though the
utility of such a mode of wearing it is by no means
apparent, and it is attended not only with some ex-
pense, but with a degree of constant trouble.

The still prevailing custom of having schools for teach-
ing generally our children, in' these days, the Latin
and Greek languages, I consider therefore, in no other
light than as the chapeau bras of modern literature.

Thus the time spent in that study might, it seems,
be much better employed in the education for such a
country as ours; and this was indeed the opinion of
most of the original trustees.

HINTS FOR CONSIDERATION RESPECTING THE ORPHAN
SCHOOL-HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA.

CHARITABLE institutions, however originally well in-
tended and well executed at first for many years, are
subject to be in a course of time corrupted, misman-
aged, their funds misapplied or perverted to private
purposes. Would it not be well to guard against these
by prudent regulations respecting the choice of man-
agers, and establishing the power of inspecting their
conduct in some permanent body, as the monthly or
quarterly meeting?

Would it not be more respectable for the institution,
if the appearance of making a profit of the labor of
orphans were avoided, and the . dependence for funds

160 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

to be wholly on charitable contributions? If this
should be concluded, then it may be proper to open
an account with each orphan on admission; the or-
phans to have credit for any subsistence brought in
with them, and for the profit made of it and of their
labor, and made debtors for their maintenance and
education. And at their discharge on coming of age,
to be paid the balance, if any, in their favor, or remain
debtors for the balance, if against them, which they
may be exhorted to pay, if ever able, but not to be
compelled. Such as receive a balance may be ex-
horted to give back a part in charity to the institution
that has taken such kind care of them, or at least to
remember it favorably, if hereafter God should bless
them with ability, either in benefaction while living, or
a legacy on decease. The orphans, when discharged,
to receive, besides decent clothing and some money,
a certificate of their good behaviour, if such it has
been, as a recommendation ; and the managers of the
institution should still consider them as their children,
so far as to counsel them in their affairs, encourage
and promote them in their business, watch over and
kindly admonish them when in danger of misconduct.

MISCELLANEOUS. 161

PAPER;

This poem has been printed in nearly all the collections of Dr.
Franklin's writings, and for that reason it is retained in the present
edition ; but I have seen no evidence, which satisfies me that he was
the author of it. In the American Museum, where it was printed
in 1788, it was said to be " ascribed to Dr. Franklin" ; and, on that
authority, it was taken first into Robinson's and then into Long-
man's edition, and thence transferred, under Franklin's name, to
various other publications in England and the United States. It is
not contained in W. T. Franklin's edition. — EDITOR.

SOME wit of old, — such wits of old there were, —
Whose hints showed meaning, whose allusions care,
By one brave stroke to mark all human kind,
Called clear blank pEFper every infant mind ;
Where still, as opening sense her dictates wrote,
Fair virtue put a seal, or vice a blot.

The thought was happy, pertinent, and true ;
Methinks a genius might the plan pursue.
I, (can you pardon my presumption ?) I —
No wit, no genius, — yet for once will try.

Various the papers various wants produce,
The wants of fashion, elegance, and use.
Men are as various ; and, if right I scan,
Each sort of paper represents some man.

Pray note the fop, — half powder and half lace, —
Nice as a band-box were his dwelling-place;
He 's the gilt paper, which apart you store,
And lock from vulgar hands in the 'scrutoire.

VOL. II. 21 N*

162 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Mechanics, servants, farmers, and so forth,
Are copy-paper of inferior worth ;
Less prized, more useful, for your desk decreed,
Free to all pens, and prompt at every need.

The wretch, whom avarice bids to pinch and spare,
Starve, cheat, and pilfer, to enrich an heir,
Is coarse brown paper ; such as pedlers choose
To wrap up wares, which better men will use.

Take next the miser's contrast, who destroys
Health, fame, and fortune, in a round of joys.
Will any paper match him? Yes, throughout,
He's a true sinking paper, past all doubt.

The retail politician's anxious thought
Deems this side always right, and that stark naught ;
He foams with censure; with applause he raves, —
A dupe to rumors, and a tool of knaves;
He'll want no type his weakness to proclaim,
While such a thing as foolscap has a name.

The hasty gentleman, whose blood runs high,
Who picks a quarrel, if you step awry,
Who can't a jest, or hint, or look endure, —
What's he? What? Touch-paper to be sure.

What are our poets, take them as they fall,
Good, bad, rich, poor, much read, not read at all?
Them and their works in the same class you'll find;
They are the mere waste-paper of mankind.

Observe the maiden, innocently sweet;
She 's fair white paper, an unsullied sheet ;
On which the happy man, whom fate ordains,
May write his name, and take her for his pains.

MISCELLANEOUS. 162

One instance more, and only one I'll bring;
'Tis the great man who scorns a little thing,
Whose thoughts, whose deeds, whose maxims are

his own,

Formed on the feelings of his heart alone;
True genuine royal paper is his breast ;
Of all the kinds most precious, purest, best.

164 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

BAGATELLES.

Concerning all the following articles, from The Levee to An
Economical Project inclusive, Mr. William Temple Franklin re-
marks, that they "were chiefly written by Dr. Franklin for the
amusement of his intimate society in London and Paris; and
were actually collected in a small PORTFOLIO, endorsed as above.
Several of the pieces were either originally written in French, or
afterwards translated by him into that language, by way of exer-
cises." The pieces which follow next, entitled The Craven
Street Gazette, and A Letter concerning China, may perhaps be
properly ranked in the same class. — EDITOR.

THE LEVEE.

IN the first chapter of Job we have an account of a
transaction said to have arisen in the court, or at the
levee, of the best of all possible princes, or of govern-
ments by a single person, viz. that of God himself.

At this levee, in which the sons of God were assem-
bled, Satan also appeared.

It is probable the writer of that ancient book took his
idea of this levee from those of the eastern monarchs
of the age he lived in.

It is to this day usual, at the levees of princes, to have
persons assembled who are enemies to each other,
who seek to obtain favor by whispering calumny and
detraction, and thereby ruining those that distinguish
.|hemselves by their virtue and merit. And kings
frequently ask a familiar question or two, of every one

MISCELLANEOUS. 165

in the circle, merely to show their benignity. These
circumstances are particularly exemplified hi this re-
lation.

If a modern king, for instance, finds a person hi the
circle, who has not lately been there, he naturally asks
him how he has passed his time since he last had the
pleasure of seeing him. The gentleman perhaps replies,
that he has been in the country to view his estates, and
visit some friends. Thus Satan, being asked whence
he cometh, answers, "From going to and fro hi the
earth, and walking up and down in it." And being
further asked, whether he had considered the upright-
ness and fidelity of the prince's servant Job, he imme-
diately displays all the malignance of the designing cour-
tier, by answering with another question ; " Doth Job
serve God for naught ? Hast thou not given him im-
mense wealth, and protected him in the possession
of it ? Deprive him of that, and he will curse thee to
thy face." In modern phrase, " Take away his places
and his pensions, and your Majesty will soon find him
in the opposition."

This whisper against Job had its effect. He was
delivered into the power of his adversary, who deprived
him of his fortune, destroyed his family, and completely
ruined him.

The Book of Job is called by divines a sacred poem,
and, with the rest of the Holy Scriptures, is understood
to be written for our instruction.

What then is the instruction to be gathered from this
supposed transaction ?

Trust not a single person with the government of
your state. For if the Deity himself, being the monarch,
may for a time give way to calumny, and suffer it to
operate the destruction of the best of subjects ; what
mischief may you not expect from such power in a

166 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

mere man, though the best of men, from whom the
truth is often industriously hidden, and to whom false-
hood is often presented in its place, by artful, interested,
and malicious courtiers ?

And be cautious in trusting him even with limited
powers, lest sooner or later he sap and destroy those
limits, and render himself absolute.

For by the disposal of places, he attaches to himself
all the placeholders, with their numerous connexions,
and also all the expecters and hopers of places, which
will form a strong party in promoting his views. By
various political engagements for the interest of neigh-
bouring states or princes, he procures their aid in estab-
lishing his own personal power. So that, through the
hopes of emolument in one part of his subjects, and the
fear of his resentment in the other, all opposition falls
before him.

PROPOSED NEW VERSION OP THE BIBLE.
To THE PRINTER OF * * * * .

SIR,

IT is now more than one hundred and seventy years
since the translation of our common English Bible.
The language in that time is much changed, and the
style, being obsolete, and thence less agreeable, is
perhaps one reason why the reading of that excellent
book is of late so much neglected. I have therefore
thought it would be well to procure a new version, in
which, preserving the sense, the turn of phrase and
manner of expression should be modern. I do not
pretend to have the necessary abilities for such a work
myself; I throw out the hint for the consideration of

MISCELLANEOUS.

167

the learned ; and only venture to send you a few
verses of the first chapter of Job, which may serve
as a sample of the kind of version I would recommend.

A. B.

PART OP THE FIRST CHAPTER OP JOB MODERNIZED.

OLD TEXT.

Verse 6. Now there was a
day when the sons of God came
to present themselves before the
Lord, and Satan came also
amongst them.

7. And the Lord said unto
Satan, Whence comest thou ?
Then Satan answered the Lord,
and said, From going to and fro
in the earth, and from walking
.up and down^n it.

8. And the Lord said unto
Satan, Hast thou considered my
servant Job, that there is none
like him in the earth, a perfect
and an upright man, one that
feareth God, and escheweth evil ?

9. Then Satan answered the
Lord, and said, Doth Job fear
God for naught?

10. Hast thou not made an
hedge about his house, and about
all that he hath on every side ?
Thou hast blessed the work of
his hands, and his substance is
increased in the land.

11. But put forth thine hand
now, and touch all that he hath,
and he will curse thee to thy
face.

NEW VERSION.
Verse 6. And it being levee
day in heaven, all God's nobility
came to court, to present them-
selves before him; and Satan
also appeared in the circle, as
one of the ministry.

7. And God said to Satan,
You have been some time ab-
sent; where were you? And
Satan answered, I have been at
my country-seat, and in different
places visiting my friends.

8. And God said, Well, what
think you of Lord Job ? You see
he is my best friend, a perfectly
honest man, full of respect for
me, and avoiding every thing
that might offend me.

9. And Satan answered, Does
your Majesty imagine that his
good conduct is the effect of
mere personal attachment and
affection ?

10. Have you not protected
him, and heaped your benefits
upon him, till he is grown
enormously rich ?

11. Try him ; — only withdraw
your favor, turn him out of his
places, and withhold his pen-
sions, and you will soon find him
in the opposition.

168 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

APOLOGUE.*

LION, king of a certain forest, had among his sub-
jects a body of faithful dogs, in principle and affection
strongly attached to his person and government, and
through whose assistance he had extended his do-
minions, and had become the terror of his enemies.

Lion, however, influenced by evil counsellors, took
an aversion to the dogs, condemned them unheard, and
ordered his tigers, leopards, and panthers to attack
and destroy them.

The dogs petitioned humbly, but their petitions were
rejected haughtily; and they were forced to defend
themselves, which they did with bravery.

A few among them, of a mongrel race, derived from
a mixture with wolves and foxes, corrupted by royal
promises of great rewards, deserted the honest dogs
and joined their enemies.

The dogs were finally victorious ; a treaty of peace
was made, in which Lion acknowledged them to be
free, and disclaimed all future authority over them.

The mongrels, not being permitted to return among
them, claimed of the royalists the reward that had been
promised.

A council of the beasts was held to consider their
demand.

The wolves and the foxes agreed unanimously that
the demand was just, that royal promises ought to be
kept, and that every loyal subject should contribute
freely to enable his Majesty to fulfil them.

* Written at the period of, and in allusion to, the claims of the American
Royalists on the British Government — W. T. F.

MISCELLANEOUS. 169

The horse alone, with a boldness and freedom that
became the nobleness of his nature, delivered a contrary
opinion.

" The King," said he, " has been misled, by bad min-
isters, to war unjustly upon his faithful subjects. Royal
promises, when made to encourage us to act for the
public good, should indeed be honorably acquitted ; but
if to encourage us to betray and destroy each other,
they are wicked and void from the beginning. The
advisers of such promises, and those who murdered in
consequence of them, instead of being recompensed,
should be severely punished. Consider how greatly
our common strength is already diminished by our loss
of the dogs. If you enable the King to reward those
fratricides, you will establish a precedent that may
justify a future tyrant in making like promises ; and every
example of such an unnatural brute rewarded will give
them additional weight. Horses and bulls, as well as
dogs, may thus be divided against their own kind, and
civil wars produced at pleasure, till we are so weakened
that neither liberty nor safety is any longer to be
found in the forest, and nothing remains but abject
submission to the will of a despot, who may devour us
as he pleases."

The council had sense enough to resolve, — That the
demand be rejected.

VOL. ii. 22 o

FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

TO MISS GEORGIAN A SHIPLEY,*

ON THE LOSS OF HER AMERICAN SQUIRREL, WHO, ESCAPING FROM HIS
CAGE, WAS KILLED BY A SHEPHERD'S DOG.

London, 26 September, 1772.

DEAR Miss,

I LAMENT with you most sincerely the unfortunate
end of poor MUNGO. Few squirrels were better ac-
complished; for he had had a good education, had
travelled far, and seen much of the world. As he had
the honor of being, for his virtues, your favorite, he
should not go, like common skuggs, without an elegy or
an epitaph. Let us give him one in the monumental
style and measure, which, being neither prose nor verse,
is perhaps the properest for grief; since to use common
•* language would look as if we were not affected, and
to make rhymes would seem trifling in sorrow.

EPITAPH.

Alas ! poor MUNGO !
Happy wert thou, hadst thou known

Thy own felicity.
Remote from the fierce bald eagle,

Tyrant of thy native woods,

Thou hadst nought to fear from his piercing talons,
Nor from the murdering gun
Of the thoughtless sportsman.

Safe in thy wired castle,

GRIMALKIN never could annoy thee.

Daily wert thou fed with the choicest viands,

By the fair hand of an indulgent mistress ;

But, discontented,

Thou wouldst have more freedom.

Too soon, alas! didst thou obtain it;

And wandering,
Thou art fallen by the fangs of wanton, cruel RANGER !

* A daughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph.

MISCELLANEOUS. 171

Learn hence,

Ye who blindly seek more liberty,

Whether subjects, sons, squirrels, or daughters,

That apparent restraint may be real protection,

Yielding peace and plenty

With security.

You see, my dear Miss, how much more decent and
proper this broken style is, than if we were to say, by
way of epitaph, —

Here SKUGG
Lies snug,
As a bug
In a rug.

And yet, perhaps, there are people in the world of so
little feeling as to think that this would be a good-
enough epitaph for poor Mungo.

If you wish it, I shall procure another to succeed him ; /
but perhaps you will now choose some other amuse- ^
ment.

Remember me affectionately to all the good family,
aad believe me ever your affectionate friend,

B. FRANKLIN.

THE ART OF PROCURING PLEASANT DREAMS.

INSCRIBED TO MISS * * * *, BEING WRITTEN AT HER REQUEST.

As a great part of our life is spent in sleep, during
which we have sometimes pleasant, and sometimes
painful dreams, it becomes of some consequence to
obtain the one kind and avoid the other ; for, whether
real or imaginary, pain is pain and pleasure is pleasure.
If we can sleep without dreaming, it is well that painful
dreams are avoided. If, while we sleep, we can have

172 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

any pleasing dream, it is, as the French say, autant de
gagne, so much added to the pleasure of life.

To this end it is, in the first place, necessary to be
careful in preserving health, by due exercise and great
temperance ; for, in sickness, the imagination is dis
turbed, and disagreeable, sometimes terrible, ideas are
apt to present themselves. Exercise should precede
meals, not immediately follow them ; the first promotes,
the latter, unless moderate, obstructs digestion. If,
after exercise, we feed sparingly, the digestion will be
easy and good, the body lightsome, the temper cheerful,
and all the animal functions performed agreeably.
Sleep, when it follows, will be natural and undisturbed ;
while indolence, with full feeding, occasions nightmares
and horrors inexpressible ; we fall from precipices, are
assaulted by wild beasts, murderers, and demons, and*
experience every variety of distress. Observe, how-
ever, that the quantities of food and exercise are relative
things ; those who move much may, and indeed ought
to eat more ; those who use little exercise should eat
little. In general, mankind, since the improvement of
cookery, eat about twice as much as nature requires.
Suppers are not bad, if we have not dined ; but restless
nights naturally follow hearty suppers after full dinners.
Indeed, as there is a difference in constitutions, some
rest well after these meals ; it costs them only a frightful
dream and an apoplexy, after which they sleep till
doomsday. Nothing is more common in the news-
papers, than instances of people who, after eating a
hearty supper, are found dead abed in the morning.

Another means of preserving health, to be attended
to, is the having a constant supply of fresh air in your
bed-chamber. It has been a great mistake, the sleep-
ing in rooms exactly closed, and in beds surrounded
by curtains. No outward air that may come in to you is

MISCELLANEOUS. 173

so unwholesome as the unchanged air, often breathed,
of a close chamber. As boiling water does not grow
hotter by longer boiling, if the particles that receive
greater heat can escape ; so living bodies do not putrefy,
if the particles, so fast as they become putrid, can be
thrown off. Nature expels them by the pores of the
skin and the lungs, and in a free, open air they are
carried off; but in a close room we receive them again
and again, though they become more and more corrupt.
A number of persons crowded into a small room thus
spoil the air in a few minutes, and even render it mortal,
as in the Black Hole at Calcutta. A single person is
said to spoil only a gallon of air per minute, and there-
fore requires a longer time to spoil a chamber-full ; but
it is done, however, in proportion, and many putrid
disorders hence have their origin. It is recorded of
Methusalem, who, being the longest liver, may be sup-
posed to have best preserved his health, that he slept
always in the open air; for, when he had lived five
hundred years, an angel said to him ; " Arise,
Methusalem, and build thee an house, for thou shalt live
yet five hundred years longer." But Methusalem
answered, and said, "If I am to live but five hundred
years longer, it is not worth while to build me an house ;
I will sleep in the air, as I have been used to do."
Physicians, after having for ages contended that the
sick should not be indulged with fresh air, have at
length discovered that it may do them good. It is
therefore to be hoped, that they may in time discover
likewise, that it is not hurtful to those who are in health,
and that we may be then cured of the aerophobia, that
at present distresses weak minds, and makes them
choose to be stifled and poisoned, rather than leave
open the window of a bed-chamber, or put down the
glass of a coach.

o*

174 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Confined air, when saturated with perspirable mat-
ter,* will not receive more; and that matter must
remain in our bodies, and occasion diseases ; but it
gives some previous notice of its being about to be
hurtful, by producing certain uneasinesses, slight indeed
at first, such as with regard to the lungs is a trifling sen-
sation, and to the pores of the skin a kind of restlessness,
which is difficult to describe, and few that feel it know
the cause of it. But we may recollect, that sometimes,
on waking in the night, we have, if warmly covered,
found it difficult to get asleep again. We turn often,
without finding repose in any position. This fidgeti-
ness (to use a vulgar expression for want of a better) is
occasioned wholly by an uneasiness hi the skin, owing
to the retention of the perspirable matter, the bed-
clothes having received their quantity, and, being satu-
rated, refusing to take any more. To become sensible
of this by an experiment, let a person keep his position
in the bed, but throw off the bed-clothes, and suffer
fresh air to approach the part uncovered of his body ;
he will then feel that part suddenly refreshed ; for the
air will immediately relieve the skin, by receiving, licking
up, and carrying off, the load of perspirable matter that
incommoded it. For every portion of cool air that
approaches the warm skin, in receiving its part of that
vapor, receives therewith a degree of heat that rarefies
and renders it lighter, when it will be pushed away
with its burthen, by cooler and therefore heavier fresh
air, which for a moment supplies its place, and then,
being likewise changed and warmed, gives way to a
succeeding quantity. This is the order of nature, to
prevent animals being infected by their own perspira-

* What physicians call the perspirable matter is that vapor, which
passes off from our bodies, from the lungs, and through the pores of the skin.
The quantity of this is said to be five eighths of what we eat. — AUTHOR.

MISCELLANEOUS. 175

tion. He will now be sensible of the difference be-
tween the part exposed to the air, and that which,
remaining sunk in the bed, denies the air access ; for
this part now manifests its uneasiness more distinctly
by the comparison, and the seat of the uneasiness is
more plainly perceived than when the whole surface of
the body was affected by it.

Here, then, is one great and general cause of un-
pleasing dreams. For, when the body is uneasy, the
mind will be disturbed by it, and disagreeable ideas of
various kinds will in sleep be the natural consequences.
The remedies, preventive and curative, follow.

1. By eating moderately (as before advised for
health's sake), less perspirable matter is produced in a
given time; hence the bed-clothes receive it longer
before they are saturated, and we may therefore sleep
longer before we are made uneasy by their refusing to
receive any more.

2. By using thinner and more porous bed-clothes,
which will suffer the perspirable matter more easily
to pass through them, we are less incommoded, such
being longer tolerable.

3. When you are awakened by this uneasiness, and
find you cannot easily sleep again, get out of bed, beat
up and turn your pillow, shake the bed-clothes well,
with at least twenty shakes, then throw the bed open
and leave it to cool ; in the mean while, continuing un-
dressed, walk about your chamber till your skin has had
time to discharge its load, which it will do sooner as the
air may be drier and colder. When you begin to feel
the cold air unpleasant, then return to your bed, and
you will soon fall asleep, and your sleep will be sweet
and pleasant. All the scenes presented to your fancy
will be too of the pleasing kind. I am often as
agreeably entertained with them, as by the scenery of

176 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

an opera. If you happen to be too indolent to get out
of bed, you may, instead of it, lift up your bed-clothes
with one arm and leg, so as to draw in a good deal of
fresh air, and by letting them fall force it out again.
This, repeated twenty times, will so clear them of the
perspirable matter they have imbibed, as to permit your
sleeping well for some time afterwards. But this latter
method is not equal to the former.

Those who do not love trouble, and can afford to
have two beds, will find great luxury in rising, when
they wake in a hot bed, and going into the cool one.
Such shifting of beds would also be of great service to
persons ill of a fever, as it refreshes and frequently pro-
cures sleep. A very large bed, that will admit a remo-
val so distant from the first situation as to be cool and
sweet, may in a degree answer the same end.

One or two observations more will conclude this little
piece. Care must be taken, when you lie down, to dis-
pose your pillow so as to suit y OWN manner of placing
your head, and to be perfectly easy ; then place your
limbs so as not to bear inconveniently hard upon one
another, as, for instance, the joints of your ankles ; for,
though a bad position may at first give but little pain
and be hardly noticed, yet a continuance will render it
less tolerable, and the uneasiness may come on while
you are asleep, and disturb your imagination. These
are the rules of the art. But, though they will generally
prove effectual in producing the end intended, there is
a case in which the most punctual observance of them
will be totally fruitless. I need not mention the case to
you, my dear friend, but my account of the art would
be imperfect without it. The case is, when the person
who desires to have pleasant dreams has not taken care
to preserve, what is necessary above all things,

A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

MISCELLANEOUS. 177

THE EPHEMERA;

AN EMBLEM OP HUMAN LIFE.
TO MADAME BRILLON, OF PASSY.

Written in 1778.

You may remember, my dear friend, that when we
lately spent that happy day in the delightful garden
and sweet society of the Moulin Joly, I stopped a little
in one of our walks, and stayed some time behind the
company. We had been shown numberless skeletons
of a kind of little fly, called an ephemera, whose suc-
cessive generations, we were told, were bred and ex-
pired within the day. I happened to see a living
company of them on a leaf, who appeared to be
engaged in conversation. You know I understand all
the inferior animal tongues. My too great application
to the study of them is the best excuse I can give for
the little progress I have made in your charming lan-
guage. I listened through curiosity to the discourse
of these little creatures ; but as they, in their national
vivacity, spoke three or four together, I could make
but little of their conversation. I found, however, by
some broken expressions that I heard now and then,
they were disputing warmly on the merit of two
foreign musicians, one a cousin, the other a moscheto ;
in which dispute they spent their time, seemingly as
regardless of the shortness of life as if they had been
sure of living a month. Happy people ! thought I ;
you are certainly under a wise, just, and mild govern-
ment, since you have no public grievances to complain
of, nor any subject of contention but the perfections
and imperfections of foreign music. I turned my head
from them to an old grey-headed one, who was single

VOL. ii. 23

178 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

on another leaf, and talking to himself. Being amused
with his soliloquy, I put it down in writing, in hopes
it will likewise amuse her to whom I am so much
indebted for the most pleasing of all amusements, her
delicious company and heavenly harmony.

" It was," said he, " the opinion of learned philos-
ophers of our race, who lived and flourished long before
my time, that this vast world, the Moulin Joly, could
not itself subsist more than eighteen hours ; and I think
there was some foundation for that opinion, since, by
the apparent motion of the great luminary that gives
life to all nature, and which in my time has evidently
declined considerably towards the ocean at the end
of our earth, it must then finish its course, be extin-
guished in the waters that surround us, and leave the
world in cold and darkness, necessarily producing uni-
versal death and destruction. I have lived seven of
those hours, a great age, being no less than four hun-
dred and twenty minutes of time. How very few of
us continue so long ! I have seen generations born,
flourish, and expire. My present friends are the chil-
dren and grandchildren of the friends of my youth,
who are now, alas, no more ! And I must soon follow
them ; for, by the course of nature, though still in
health, I cannot expect to live above seven or eight
minutes longer. What now avails all my toil and labor,
in amassing honey-dew on this leaf, which I cannot
live to enjoy! What the political struggles I have
been engaged in, for the good of my compatriot in-
habitants of this bush, or my philosophical studies for
the benefit of our race in general ! for, in politics, what
^ can laws do without morals? Our present race of
ephemerae will in a course of minutes become corrupt,
like those of other and older bushes, and consequently
as wretched. And in philosophy how small our pro-

MISCELLANEOUS. 179

gress ! Alas ! art is long, and life is short ! My friends
would comfort me with the idea of a name, they say,
I shall leave behind me; and they tell me I have
lived long enough to nature and to glory. But what
will fame be to an ephemera who no longer exists?
And what will become of all history in the eighteenth
hour, when the world itself, even the whole Moulin
Joly, shall come to its end, and be buried in universal
ruin?"

To me, after all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures
now remain, but the reflection of a long life spent h>
meaning well, the sensible conversation of a few good
lady ephemerae, and now and then a kind smile and
a tune from the ever amiable Brillante*

B. FRANKLIN.

* The substance of these reflections of the venerable EPHEMERA
appeared in The Pennsylvania Gazette, December 4th, 1735, in an essay
" O>* HUMAN VANITY." Franklin was then the editor and publisher of
that paper. In its original form the article purports to be a communi-
cation from some other person. In the above letter to " the ever amiable
Brillante" it was doubtless re-written from memory. It is much im-
proved in this new dress, both as to diction and sentiment, as will be
seen by comparing it with the following extract from the essay On
Human Vanity. The aged philosopher is there represented, not as
uttering a soliloquy, but as calling his friends around him, and addressing
them for the last time. — EDITOR.

EXTRACT.

" Friends and fellow citizens ! I perceive the longest life must however
end. The period of mine is now at hand. Neither do I repine at my
fate, since my great age is become a burthen to me ; and there is nothing
new to me under the sun. The changes and revolutions I have seen in
my country, the manifold private misfortunes to which we are all liable,
the fatal diseases incident to our race, have abundantly taught me this
lesson ; that no happiness can be secure or lasting, which is placed in
things that are out of our power. Great is the uncertainty of life !
A whole brood of our infants have perished in a moment, by a keen
blast ! Shoals of our straggling youth have been swept into the ocean
by an unexpected breeze ! What wasteful desolation have we not
suffered from the deluge of a sudden shower ! Our strongest holds are

180 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

THE WHISTLE. .

TO MADAME BRILLOTf.

Passy, 10 November, 1779.

I RECEIVED my dear friend's two letters, one for
Wednesday and one for Saturday. This is again
Wednesday. I do not deserve one for to-day, be-
cause I have not answered the former. But, indolent
as I am, and averse to writing, the fear of having no
.more of your pleasing epistles, if I do not contribute
to the correspondence, obliges me to take up my pen ;
and as Mr. B. has kindly sent me word, that he sets
out to-morrow to see you, instead of spending this
Wednesday evening as I have done its namesakes,
in your delightful company, I sit down to spend it in

not proof against a storm of hail, and even a dark cloud damps the very
stoutest heart

" I have lived in the first ages, and conversed with insects of a larger
size and stronger make, and, I must add, of greater virtue than any can
boast of in the present generation. I must conjure you to give yet further
credit to my latest words when I assure you, that yonder sun, which now
appears westward, beyond the water, and seems not to be far distant from
the earth, in my remembrance stood in the middle of the sky, and shot
his beams directly down upon us. The world was much more enlightened
in those ages, and the air much warmer. Think it not dotage in me, if
I affirm, that glorious being moves. I saw his first setting out in the
east, and I began my race of life, near the time when he began his im-
mense career. He has for several ages advanced along the sky with vast
heat and unparalleled brightness ; but now, by his declination, and a sensible
decay, more especially of late, in his vigor, I foresee that all nature must
fall in a little time, and that the creation will lie buried in darkness, in
less than a century of minutes.

" Alas ! my friends, how did I once flatter myself with the hopes of
abiding here for ever ; how magnificent are the cells which I hollowed
out for myself; what confidence did I repose in the firmness and spring
of my joints, and in the strength of my pinions ! But I have lived enough
to nature, and even to glory. Neither will any of you, whom I leave
behind, have equal satisfaction in life, in the dark, declining age, which
I see is already begun."

MISCELLANEOUS. 181

thinking of you, b wi*ve charitvj&d in reading over
and over again your ler> tto&**??

I am charmed with your description of Paradise, and
with your plan of living there ; and I approve much of
your conclusion, that, in the mean time, we should
draw all the good we can from this world. In my
opinion, we might all draw more good from it than
we do, and suffer less evil, if we would take care not
to give too much for whistles. For to me it seems,
that most of the unhappy people we meet with, are
become so by neglect of that caution.

You ask what I mean 1 • You love stories, and will
excuse my telling one of myself.

When I was a child of seven years old, my friends,
on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went
directly to a shop where they sold toys for children;
and, being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that
I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I
voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one.
I then came home, and went whistling all over the
house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing
all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins,
understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had
given four times as much for it as it was worth ; put
me in mind what good things I might have bought
with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so
much for my folly, that I cried with vexation ; and the
reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave
me pleasure.

This however was afterwards of use to me, the im-
pression continuing on my mind; so that often, when
I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said
, Don't give too much for the whistle ; and I
d my money.

A& I grew up, came into the world, and observed

VOL. II. P

182 FRANKLIN'S WAITINGS.-

the actions of meiv met with many, very

many, who gave too mu£?&^$Jthe whistle.

When I saw one too ambitious of court favor, sacri-
ficing his time in attendance on levees, his repose, his
liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain it,
I have said to myself, This man gives too much for his
whistle.

When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly
employing himself in political bustles, neglecting his
own affairs, and ruining them by that neglect, He pays,
indeed, said I, too much for his whistle.

If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of com-
fortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others,
all the esteem" of his fellow-citizens, and the Joys of
benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating
wealth, Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your
whistle.

When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every
laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune,
to mere corporeal sensations, and ruining his health in
their pursuit, Mistaken man, said I, you are providing
pain for yourself, instead of pleasure ; you give too
much for your whistle.

If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine
houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his
fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his
career in a prison, Jllas ! say I, he has paid dear, very
dear, for his whistle.

When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married
to an ill-natured brute of a husband, IVIiat a pity, say I,
that she should pay so much for a whistle !

In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries
of mankind are brought upon them by the false
mates they have made of the value of things,
their giving oo much for their whistles.

MISCELLANEOUS. 183

Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy
people, when I consider, that, with all this wisdom of
which I am boasting, there are certain things in the
world so tempting, for example, the apples of King
John, which happily are not to be bought ; for if they
were put to sale by auction, I might very easily be
led to ruin myself in the purchase, and find that I had
once more given too much for the whistle.

Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours
very sincerely and with unalterable affection,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO THOSE WHO HAVE THE SUPERINTENDENCY OF EDUCATION.

I ADDRESS myself to all the friends of youth, and
conjure them to direct their compassionate regards to
my unhappy fate, in order to remove the prejudices
of which I am the victim. There are twin sisters of
us; and the two eyes of man do not more resemble,
nor are capable of being upon better terms with each
other, than my sister and myself, were it not for the
partiality of our parents, who make the most injurious
distinctions between us. From my infancy, I have
been led to consider my sister as a being of a more
elevated rank. I was suffered to grow up without the
least instruction, while nothing was spared in her edu-
cation. She had masters to teach her writing, drawing,
music, and other accomplishments ; but if by chance I
touched a pencil, a pen, or a needle, I was bitterly
rebuked ; and more than once I have been beaten for
to><-ng awkward, and wanting a graceful manner. It is
, my sister associated me with her upon some oc-

Af»ns; but she always made a point of taking the

v<

184 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

lead, calling upon me only from necessity, or to figure
by her side.

But conceive not, Sirs, that my complaints are insti-
gated merely by vanity. No; my uneasiness is oc-
casioned by an object much more serious. It is the
practice in our family, that the whole business of providing
for its subsistence falls upon my sister and myself. If
any indisposition should attack my sister, — and I men-
tion it in confidence upon this occasion, that she is
subject to the gout, the rheumatism, and cramp, with-
out making mention of other accidents, — what would
be the fate of our poor family? Must not the regret
of our parents be excessive, at having placed so great
a difference between sisters who are so perfectly equal?
Alas! we must perish from distress; for it would not
be hi my power even to scrawl a suppliant petition
for relief having been obliged to employ the hand of
another in transcribing the request which I have now
the honor to prefer to you.

Condescend, Sirs, to make my parents sensible of
the injustice of an exclusive tenderness, and of the
necessity of distributing their care and affection among
all their children equally. I am, with a profound re-
spect, Sirs, your obedient servant,

THE LEFT HAND.

MISCELLANEOUS. 185

THE HANDSOME AND DEFORMED LEG.

THERE are two sorts of people in the world, who,
with equal degrees of health and wealth, and the
other comforts of life, become, the one happy, and
the other miserable. This arises very much from the
different views in which they consider things, persons,
and events; and the effect of those different views
upon their own minds.

In whatever situation men can be placed, they may
find conveniences and inconveniences ; in whatever
company, they may find persons and conversation more
or less pleasing ; at whatever table, they may meet
with meats and drinks of better and worse taste, dishes
better and worse dressed; in whatever climate, they
will find good and bad weather ; under whatever gov-
ernment, they may find good and bad laws, and good
and bad administration of those laws; in whatever
poem, or work of genius, they may see faults and
beauties; in almost every face, and every person, they
may discover fine features and defects, good and bad
qualities.

Under these circumstances, the two sorts of people
above mentioned fix their attention; those who are
disposed to be happy, on the conveniences of things,
the pleasant parts of conversation, the well-dressed
dishes, the goodness of the wines, the fine weather, &c.,
and enjoy all with cheerfulness. Those who are to
be unhappy think and speak only of the contraries.
Hence they are continually discontented themselves,
and, by their remarks, sour the pleasures of society,
offend personally many people, and make themselves
everywhere disagreeable. If this turn of mind was
founded in nature, such unhappy persons would be

VOL. IT 24 p*

186 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

the more to be pitied. But as the disposition to criti-
cize, and to be disgusted, is perhaps taken up origin-
ally by imitation, and is unawares grown into a habit,
which, though at present strong, may nevertheless be
cured, when those who have it are convinced of its bad
effects on their felicity, I hope this little admonition may
be of service to them, and put them on changing a
habit, which, though in the exercise it is chiefly an act
of imagination, yet has serious consequences in life, as
it brings on real griefs and misfortunes. For, as many
are offended by, and nobody loves this sort of people,
no one shows them more than the most common civility
and respect, and scarcely that ; and this frequently puts
them out of humor, and draws them into disputes and
contentions. If they aim at obtaining some advantage
in rank or fortune, nobody wishes them success, or will
stir a step, or speak a word, to favor their pretensions.
If they incur public censure or disgrace, no one will
defend or excuse, and many join to aggravate their
misconduct, and render them completely odious. If
these people will not change this bad habit, and con-
descend to be pleased with what is pleasing, without
fretting themselves and others about the contraries, it
is good for others to avoid an acquaintance with them ;
which is always disagreeable, and sometimes very in-
convenient, especially when one finds one's self entan-
gled in their quarrels.

An old philosophical friend of mine was grown, from
experience, very cautious in this particular, and carefully
avoided any intimacy with such people. He had, like
other philosophers, a thermometer to show him the heat
of the weather, and a barometer to mark when it was
likely to prove good or bad ; but, there being no in-
strument invented to discover, at first sight, this un-
pleasing disposition in a person, he for that purpose

MISCELLANEOUS. 187

made use of his legs; one of which was remarkably
handsome, the other, by some accident, crooked and
deformed. If a stranger, at the first interview, re-
garded his ugly leg more than his handsome one, he
doubted him. If he spoke of it, and took no notice
of the handsome leg, that was sufficient to determine
my philosopher to have no further acquaintance with
him. Every body has not this two-legged instrument ;
but every one, with a little attention, may observe
signs of that carping, fault-finding disposition, and take
the same resolution of avoiding the acquaintance of
those infected with it. I therefore advise those criti-
cal, querulous, discontented, unhappy people, that, if
they wish to be respected and beloved by others, and
happy in themselves, they should leave off looking at
the ugly leg.

MORALS OF CHESS.

PLAYING at chess is the most ancient and most
universal game known among men; for its original is
beyond the memory of history, and it has, for num-
berless ages, been the amusement of all the civilized
nations of Asia, the Persians, the Indians, and the
Chinese. Europe has had it above a thousand years ;
the Spaniards have spread it over their part of Amer-
ica; and it has lately begun to make its appearance
in the United States. It is so interesting in itself, as
not to need the view of gain to induce engaging in it ;
and thence it is seldom played for money. Those,
therefore, who have leisure for such diversions, cannot
find one that is more innocent ; and the following piece,
written with a view to correct (among a few young

188 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

friends) some little improprieties in the practice of it,
shows at the same time that it may, in its effects on
the mind, be not merely innocent, but advantageous, to
the vanquished as well as the victor.

THE game of chess is not merely an idle amuse-
ment. Several very valuable qualities of the mind,
useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired
or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready
on all occasions. For life is a kind of chess, in which
we have often points to gain, and competitors or ad-
versaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast
variety of good and evil events, that are in some
degree the effects of prudence or the want of it. By
playing at chess, then, we may learn,

I. Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and
considers the consequences that may attend an action ;
for it is continually occurring to the player, " If I move
this piece, what will be the advantage of my new-
situation ? What use can my adversary make of it to
annoy me? What other moves can I make to sup-
port it, and to defend myself from his attacks 1 "

II. Circumspection, which surveys the whole chess-
board, or scene of action ; the relations of the several
pieces and situations, the dangers they are respectively
exposed to, the several possibilities of their aiding each
other, the probabilities that the adversary may make this
or that move, and attack this or the other piece, and
what different means can be used to avoid his stroke,
or turn its consequences against him.

III. Caution, not to make our moves too hastily.
This habit is best acquired by observing strictly the
laws of the game; such as, "If you touch a piece,
you must move it somewhere; if you set it down,
you must let it stand;" and it is therefore best that

MISCELLANEOUS. 189

these rules should be observed, as the game thereby
becomes more the image of human life, and particularly
of war; in which, if you have incautiously put your-
self into a bad and dangerous position, you cannot
obtain your enemy's leave to withdraw your troops,
and place them more securely, but you must abide all
the consequences of your rashness.

And, lastly, we learn by chess the habit of not being
discouraged by present appearances in the state of our
affairs, the habit of hoping for a favorable change, and
that of persevering in the search of resources. The
game is so full of events, there is such a variety of
turns in it, the fortune of it is so subject to sudden
vicissitudes, and one so frequently, after long contem-
plation, discovers the means of extricating one's self from
a supposed insurmountable difficulty, that one is en-
couraged to continue the contest to the last, in hopes
of victory by our own skill, or at least of getting a
stale mate, by the negligence of our adversary. And
whoever considers, what in chess he often sees in-
stances of, that particular pieces of success are apt to
produce presumption, and its consequent inattention,
by which the losses may be recovered, will learn not
to be too much discouraged by the present success of
his adversary, nor to despair of final good fortune upon
every little check he receives in the pursuit of it.

That we may therefore be induced more frequently
to choose this beneficial amusement, in preference to
others which are not attended with the same advan-
tages, every circumstance which may increase the
pleasures of it should be regarded; and every action
or word that is unfair, disrespectful, or that in any
way may give uneasiness, should be avoided, as con-
trary to the immediate intention of both the players,
which is to pass the time agreeably.

190 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Therefore, first, if it is agreed to play according to
the strict ruies, then those rules are to be exactly ob-
served by both parties, and should not be insisted on
for one side, while deviated from by the other, for this
is not equitable.

Secondly, if it is agreed not to observe the rules
exactly, but one party demands indulgences, he should
then be as willing to allow them to the other.

Thirdly, no false move should ever be made to ex-
tricate yourself out of difficulty, or to gain an advan-
tage. There can be no pleasure in playing with a
person once detected in such unfair practice.

Fourthly, if your adversary is long in playing, you
ought not to hurry him, or express any uneasiness at
his delay. You should not sing, nor whistle, nor look
at your watch, nor take up a book to read, nor make
a tapping with your feet on the floor, or with your
fingers on the table, nor do any thing that may disturb
his attention. For all these things displease ; and they
do not show your skill in playing, but your craftiness
or your rudeness.

Fifthly, you ought not to endeavour to amuse and
deceive your adversary, by pretending to have made
bad moves, and saying, that you have now lost the
game, in order to make him secure and careless, and
inattentive to your schemes ; for this is fraud and
deceit, not skill in the game.

Sixthly, you must not, when you have gained a
victory, use any triumphing or insulting expression, nor
show too much pleasure ; but endeavour to console
your adversary, and make him less dissatisfied with
himself, by every kind of civil expression that may be
used with truth, such as, " You understand the game
better than I, but you are a little inattentive ;" or, " You
play too fast ; " or, " You had the best of the game,

MISCELLANEOUS. 191

but something happened to divert your thoughts, and
that turned it in my favor."

Seventhly, if you are a spectator while others play,
observe the most perfect silence. For, if you give
advice, you offend both parties, him against whom you
give it, because it may cause the loss of his game,
him in whose favor you give it, because, though it be
good, and he follows it, he loses the pleasure he might
have had, if you had permitted him to think until it
had occurred to himself. Even after a move or moves,
you must not, by replacing the pieces, show how they
might have been placed better ; for that displeases, and
may occasion disputes and doubts about their true
situation. All talking to the players lessens or diverts
their attention, and is therefore unpleasing. Nor should
you give the least hint to either party, by any kind of
noise or motion. If you do, you are unworthy to be
a spectator. If you have a mind to exercise or show
your judgment, do it in playing your own game, when
you have an opportunity, not in criticizing, or meddling
with, or counselling the play of others.

Lastly, if the game is not to be played rigorously,
according to the rules above mentioned, then moderate
your desire of victory over your adversary, and be
pleased with one over yourself. Snatch not eagerly at
every advantage offered by his unskilfulness or inatten-
tion ; but point out to him kindly, that by such a move
he places or leaves a piece in danger and unsupported ;
that by another he will put his king in a perilous situa-
tion, &c. By this generous civility (so opposite to the
unfairness above forbidden) you may, indeed, happen
to lose the game to your opponent ; but you will win '
what is better, his esteem, his respect, and his affection,
together with the silent approbation and good-will of
impartial spectators.

192 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

CONTE.

IL y avoit un officier, homme de bien, appele Mon-
tresor, qui etoit tres-malade ; son cure, croyant qu'il
alloit mourir, lui conseilla de faire sa paix avec Dieu,
afin d'etre re£u en Paradis. "Je n'ai pas beaucoup
d'inquietude a ce sujet," dit Montresor, " car j'ai eu,
la nuit derniere, une vision qui m'a tout-a-fait tran-
quillise." " Quelle vision avez-vous cue?" dit le bon
pretre. " J'etois," repondit Montresor, " a la porte du
Paradis, avec une foule de gens qui vouloient entrer.
Et St. Pierre demandoit a chacun, de quelle religion
il etoit. L'un repondoit, * Je suis Catholique Romain.'
'He bien,' disoit St. Pierre, 'entrez, et prenez votre place
la parmi les Catholiques.' Un autre dit, qu'il etoit de
Peglise Anglicane. 'He bien,' dit St. Pierre, 'entrez, et
placez-vous la parmi les Anglicans.' Un autre dit qu'il
etoit Quaker. 'Entrez,' dit St. Pierre, 'et prenez place
parmi les Quakers.' Enfin, mon tour etant arrive, il
me demanda de quelle religion j'etois. ' Helas ! ' re-
pondis-je, ' malheureusement le pauvre Jacques Mon-
tresor n'en a point. ' C'est dommage,' dit le Saint, ' je
ne sais ou vous placer; metis entrez toujours ; vous
vous mettrez ou vous pourrez.'"

TRANSLATION.
A TALE.

AN officer named Montresor, a worthy man, was very ill. The
curate of his parish, thinking him likely to die, advised him to
make his peace with God, that he might be received into Paradise.
" I have not much uneasiness on the subject," said Montresor,
" for I had a vision last night which has perfectly tranquillized my

MISCELLANEOUS. 193

mind." "What vision have you had?" said the good priest.
" I was," replied Montresor, " at the gate of Paradise, with a crowd
of people who wished to enter, and St. Peter inquired of every one
what religion he was of. One answered, ' I am a Roman Catholic.'
' Well,' said St. Peter, ' enter, and take your place there among the
Catholics.' Another said he was of the Church of England. ' Well,'
said the Saint, 'enter and place yourself there among the Anglicans.'
A third said he was a Quaker. ' Enter,' said St. Peter, ' and take
your place among the Quakers.' At length my turn being come, he
asked me of what religion I was. ' Alas ! ' said I, ' poor Jacques
Montresor has none.' *'Tis pity,' said the Saint; ' I know not
where to place you; but enter nevertheless, and place yourself where
you can.' "

AN ARABIAN TALE.

ALBUMAZAR, the good magician, retired in his old
age to the top of the lofty mountain Calabut ; avoided
the society of men, but was visited nightly by genii and
spirits of the first rank, who loved him, and amused him
with their instructive conversation.

Belubel, the strong, came one evening to see Albu-
mazar; his height was seven leagues, and his wings
when spread might overshadow a kingdom. He laid
himself gently down between the long ridges of Elluem ;
the tops of the trees in the valley were his couch ; his
head rested on Calabut as on a pillow, and his face
shone on the tent of Albumazar.

The magician spoke to him with rapturous piety of
the wisdom and goodness of the Most High ; but ex-
pressed his wonder at the existence of evil in the world,
which he said he could not account for by all the efforts
of his reason.

"Value not thyself, my friend," said Belubel, "on that
quality which thou callest reason. If thou knewest its
origin and its weakness, it would rather be matter of
humiliation."

VOL. II. 25 Q

194 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

" Tell me then," said Albumazar, " what I do not
know; inform my ignorance, and enlighten my under-
standing." " Contemplate," said Albumazar, " the scale
of beings, from an elephant down to an oyster. Thou
seest a gradual diminution of faculties and powers, so
small in each step that the difference is scarce percepti-
ble. There is no gap, but the gradation is complete.
Men in general do not know, but thou knowest, that in
ascending from an elephant to the infinitely Great,
Good, and Wise, there is also a long gradation of beings,
who possess powers and faculties of which thou canst
yet have no conception."

DIALOGUE BETWEEN FRANKLIN AND THE GOUT.

Midnight, 22 October, 1780.

FRANKLIN. Eh! Oh! Eh! What have I done to
merit these cruel sufferings?

GOUT. Many things; you have ate and drank too
freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in
their indolence.

FRANKLIN. Who is it that accuses me ?

GOUT. It is I, even I, the Gout.

FRANKLIN. What ! my enemy in person 1

GOUT. No, not your enemy.

FRANKLIN. I repeat it; my enemy; for you would
not only torment my body to death, but ruin my good
name ; you reproach me as a glutton and a tippler ;
now all the world, that knows me, will allow that I am
neither the one nor the other.

GOUT. The world may think as it pleases; it is
always very complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its
friends ; but I very well know that the quantity of meat
and drink proper for a man, who takes a reasonable

MISCELLANEOUS. 195

degree of exercise, would be too much for another, who
never takes any.

FRANKLIN. I take — Eh ! Oh ! — as much exercise
— Eh ! — as I can, Madam Gout. You know my
sedentary state, and on that account, it would seem,
Madam Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it
is not altogether my own fault.

GOUT. Not a jot ; your rhetoric and your politeness
are thrown away ; your apology avails nothing. If your
situation in life is a sedentary one, your amusements,
your recreations, at least, should be active. You ought
to walk or ride ; or, if the weather prevents that, play at
billiards. But let us examine your course of life.
While the mornings are long, and you have leisure to
go abroad, what do you do 1 Why, instead of gaining
an appetite for breakfast, by salutary exercise, you
amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers,
which commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you
eat an inordinate breakfast, four dishes of tea, with
cream, and one or two buttered toasts, with slices of
hung beaf, which I fancy are not things the most easily
digested. Immediately afterward you sit down to write
at your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you
on business. Thus the time passes till one, without
any kind of bodily exercise. But all this I could par-
don, in regard, as you say, to your sedentary condition.
But what is your practice after dinner? Walking in
the beautiful gardens of those friends, with whom you
have dined, would be the choice of men of sense ; yours
is to be fixed down to chess, where you are found
engaged for two or three hours ! This is your perpetual
recreation, which is the least eligible of any for a seden-
tary man, because, instead of accelerating the motion of
the fluids, the rigid attention it requires helps to retard
the circulation and obstruct internal secretions. Wrapt

196 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

in the speculations of this wretched game, you destroy
your constitution. What can be expected from such a
course of living, but a body replete with stagnant
humors, ready to fall a prey to all kinds of dangerous
maladies, if I, the Gout, did not occasionally bring you
relief by agitating those humors, and so purifying or
dissipating them ? If it was hi some nook or alley in
Paris, deprived of walks, that you played awhile at
chess after dinner, this might be excusable ; but the
same taste prevails with you in Passy, Auteuil, Mont-
martre, or Sanoy, places where there are the finest
gardens and walks, a pure air, beautiful women, and
most agreeable and instructive conversation ; all which
you might enjoy by frequenting the walks. But these
are rejected for this abominable game of chess. Fie,
then, Mr. Franklin ! But amidst my instructions, I had
almost forgot to administer my wholesome corrections ;
so take that twinge, — and that.

FRANKLIN. Oh ! Eh ! Oh ! Ohhh ! As much instruc-
tion as you please, Madam Gout, and as many reproach-
es ; but pray, Madam, a truce with your corrections !

GOUT. No, Sir, no, — I will not abate a particle of
what is so much for your good, — therefore —

FRANKLIN. Oh! Ehhh! — It is not fair to say I
take no exercise, when I do very often, going out to
dine and returning in my carriage.

GOUT. That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most
slight and insignificant, if you allude to the motion of a
carriage suspended on springs. By observing the de-
gree of heat obtained by different kinds of motion, we
may form an estimate of the quantity of exercise given
by each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to walk in
winter with cold feet, in an hour's time you will be in a
glow all over ; ride on horseback, the same effect will
scarcely be perceived by four hours' round trotting ; but

MISCELLANEOUS. 197

if you loll in a carriage, such as you have mentioned,
you may travel all day, and gladly enter the last inn to
warm your feet by a fire. Flatter yourself then no
longer, that half an hour's airing in your carriage
deserves the name of exercise. Providence has ap-
pointed few to roll in carriages, while he has given to all
a pah- of legs, which are machines infinitely more com-
modious and serviceable. Be grateful, then, and make
a proper use of yours. Would you know how they
forward the circulation of your fluids, in the very action
of transporting you from place to place ; observe when
you walk, that all your weight is alternately thrown
from one leg to the other ; this occasions a great pres-
sure on the vessels of the foot, and repels their contents ;
when relieved, by the weight being thrown on the other
foot, the vessels of the first are allowed to replenish,
and, by a return of this weight, this repulsion again
succeeds ; thus accelerating the circulation of the blood.
The heat produced in any given time, depends on the
degree of this acceleration ; the fluids are shaken, the
humors attenuated, the secretions facilitated, and all
goes well ; the cheeks are ruddy, and health is estab-
lished. Behold your fair friend at Auteuil ; * a lady who
received from bounteous nature more really useful
science, than half a dozen such pretenders to philosophy
as you have been able to extract from all your books.
When she honors you with a visit, it is on foot. She
walks all hours of the day, and leaves indolence, and its
concomitant maladies, to be endured by her horses. In
this see at once the preservative of her health and per-
sonal charms. But when you go to Auteuil, you must
have your carriage, though it is no further from Passy
to Auteuil than from Auteuil to Passy.

* Madame Helvetius.

Q*

198 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

FRANKLIN. Your reasonings grow very tiresome.

GOUT. I stand corrected. I will be silent and con-
tinue my office ; take that, and that.

FRANKLIN. Oh ! Ohh ! Talk on, I pray you !

GOUT. No, no ; I have a good number of twinges
for you to-night, and you may be sure of some more
to-morrow.

FRANKLIN. What, with such a fever! I shall go
distracted. Oh ! Eh ! Can no one bear it for me ?

GOUT. Ask that of your horses ; they have served
you faithfully.

FRANKLIN. How can you so cruelly sport with my
torments ?

GOUT. Sport ! I am very serious. I have here a
list of offences against your own health distinctly written,
and can justify every stroke inflicted on you.

FRANKLIN. Read it then.

GOUT. It is too long a detail ; but I will briefly
mention some particulars.

FRANKLIN. Proceed. I am all attention.

GOUT. Do you remember how often you have pro-
mised yourself, the following morning, a walk in the
grove of Boulogne, in the garden de la Muette, or hi
your own garden, and have violated your promise,
alleging, at one time, it was too cold, at another too
warm, too windy, too moist, or what else you pleased ;
when in truth it was too nothing, but your insuperable
love of ease ?

FRANKLIN. That I confess may have happened
occasionally, probably ten times in a year.

GOUT. Your confession is very far short of the truth ;
the gross amount is one hundred and ninety-nine times.

FRANKLIN. Is it possible?

GOUT. So possible, that it is fact ; you may rely on
the accuracy of my statement. You know Mr. Brillon's

MISCELLANEOUS. 199

gardens, and what fine walks they contain ; you know
the handsome flight of an hundred steps, which lead
from the terrace above to the lawn below. You have
been in the practice of visiting this amiable family twice
a week, after dinner, and it is a maxim of your own,
that " a man may take as much exercise in walking a
mile, up and down stairs, as in ten on level ground."
What an opportunity was here for you to have had
exercise in both these ways ! Did you embrace it, and
how often?

FRANKLIN. I cannot immediately answer that
question.

GOUT. I will do it for you; not once.

FRANKLIN. Not once ?

GOUT. Even so. During the summer you went
there at six o'clock. You found the charming lady,
with her lovely children and friends, eager to walk with
you, and entertain you with their agreeable conversa-
tion ; and what has been your choice ? Why to sit on
the terrace, satisfying yourself with the fine prospect,
and passing your eye over the beauties of the garden
below, without taking one step to descend and walk
about in them. On the contrary, you call for tea and
the chess-board ; and lo ! you are occupied in your seat
till nine o'clock, and that besides two hours' play after
dinner; and then, instead of walking home, which
would have bestirred you a little, you step into your
carriage. How absurd to suppose that all this care-
lessness can be reconcilable with health, without my
interposition !

FRANKLIN. I am convinced now of the justness of
poor Richard's remark, that " Our debts and our sins
are always greater than we think for."

GOUT. So it is. You philosophers are sages in
your maxims, and fools in your conduct.

200 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

FRANKLIN. But do you charge among my crimes,
that I return in a carriage from Mr. Brillon's ?

GOUT. Certainly; for, having been seated all the
while, you cannot object the fatigue of the day, and
cannot want therefore the relief of a carriage:

FRANKLIN. What then would you have me do with
my carriage?

GOUT. Burn it if you choose ; you would at least
get heat out of it once in this way ; or, if you dislike
that proposal, here 's another for you ; observe the poor
peasants, who work in the vineyards and grounds about
the villages of Passy, Auteuil, Chaillot, &c. ; you may
find every day, among these deserving creatures, four or
five old men and women, bent and perhaps crippled by
weight of years, and too long and too great labor.
After a most fatiguing day, these people have^ to trudge
a mile or two to their smoky huts. Order your coach-
man to set them down. This is an act that will be
good for your soul ; and, at the same time, after your
visit to the Brillons, if you return on foot, that will be
good for your body.

FRANKLIN. Ah ! how tiresome you are !

GOUT. Well, then, to my office ; it should not be
forgotten that I am your physician. There.

FRANKLIN. Ohhh ! what a devil of a physician !

GOUT. How ungrateful you are to say so ! Is it not
I who, in the character of your physician, have saved
you from the palsy, dropsy, and apoplexy ? one or other
of which would have done for you long ago, but for me.

FRANKLIN. I submit, and thank you for the past,
but entreat the discontinuance of your visits for the
future ; for, in my mind, one had better die than be
cured so dolefully. Permit me just to hint, that I have
also not been unfriendly to you. I never feed physician
or quack of any kind, to enter the list against you ; if

MISCELLANEOUS. 201

then you do not leave me to my repose, it may be said
you are ungrateful too.

GOUT. I can scarcely acknowledge that as any
objection. As to quacks, I despise them ; they may kill
you indeed, but cannot injure me. And, as to regular
physicians, they are at last convinced, that the gout, in
such a subject as you are, is no disease, but a remedy ;
and wherefore cure a remedy ? — but to our business,
— there.

FRANKLIN. Oh! Oh! — for Heaven's sake leave
me; and I promise faithfully never more to play at
chess, but to take exercise daily, and live temperately.

GOUT. I know you too well. You promise fair;
but, after a few months of good health, you will return
to your old habits ; your fine promises will be forgotten
like the forms of the last year's clouds. Let us then
finish the account, and I will go. But I leave you with
an assurance of visiting you again at a proper time and
place ; for my object is your good, and you are sensible
now that I am your real friend.

TO MADAME HELVETIUS, AT AUTEUIL.

And now I mention your friends, let me tell

you, that I have in my way been trying to form some
hypothesis to acceunt for your having so many, and of
such various kinds. I see that statesmen, philosophers,
historians, poets, and men of learning of all sorts, are
drawn around you, and seem as willing to attach them-
selves to you as straws about a fine piece of amber. It
is not that you make pretensions to any of their
sciences ; and, if you did, similarity of studies does not
always make, people love one another. It is not, that

VOL. ii. 26

202 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

you take pains to engage them ; artless simplicity is a
striking part of your character. I would not attempt to
explain it by the story of the ancient, who, being
asked why philosophers sought the acquaintance of
kings, and kings not that of philosophers, replied, that
philosophers knew what they wanted, which was not
always the case with kings. Yet thus far the com-
parison may go, that we find in your sweet society, that
charming benevolence, that amiable attention to oblige,
that disposition to please and be pleased, which we do
not always find hi the society of one another. It
springs from you ; it has its influence on us all ; and in
your company we are not only pleased with you, but
better pleased with one another, and with ourselves.
I am ever, with great respect and affection, &c.

B. F.

A MADAME HELVETIUS.

CHAGRINE de votre resolution barbare, prononcee si
positivement hier au soir, de rester seule pendant la vie
en honneur de votre cher mari, je me retirois chez moi,
tombois sur mon lit, me croyois mort, et que je me trou-
vois dans les Champs-Elisees.

On me demanda si j'avois en vie de voir quelques
personnages particuliers. "Menez-moi chez les philo-
sophes." "II y en a deux qui demeurent ici pres dans
ce jardin ; ils sont de tres-bons voisins, et tres-amis 1'un
de 1'autre." "Qui sont-ils?" "Socrate et Helvetius."
"Je les estime prodigieusement tous les deux; mais
faites-moi voir premierement Helvetius, parce que j'en-
tends un peu de Fran£ois et pas un mot de Grec." — II
m'a recu avec beaucoup de courtoisie, m'ayant connu,
disoit-il, de reputation il y avoit quelque temps. II me

MISCELLANEOUS. 203

demanda mille choses sur la guerre, et sur 1'etat present
de la religion, de la liberte, et du gouvernement en
France. " Vous ne demandez done rien," lui dis-je, " de
votre chere amie Madame Helvetius ; et cependant elle
vous aime encore excessivement, et il n'y a qu'une
heure que j'etois chez elle." "Ah!" dit-il, "vous me
faites ressouvenir de mon ancienne felicite. Mais il faut
1'oublier pour etre heureux ici. Pendant plusieurs des
premieres annees, je n'ai pense qu'a elle. Enfin je suis
console. J'ai pris une autre femme ; la plus semblable
a elle que j'ai pu trouver. Elle n'est pas, il est vrai,
tout-a-fait si belle, mais elle a autant de bon sens, beau-
coup d'esprit, et elle m'aime infiniment. Son etude con-
tinuelle est de me plaire, et elle est sortie actuellement
chercher le meilleur nectar et ambroisie pour me regaler
ce soir ; restez avec moi et vous la verrez." " J'apper-
9ois," dis-je, " que votre ancienne amie est plus fidelle
que vous ; car plusieurs bons partis lui ont ete offerts
qu'elle a refuses tous. Je vous confesse que je Pai
aimee, moi, a la folie ; mais elle etoit dure a mon egard, et
m'a rejete absolument pour 1'amour de vous." " Je vous
plains," dit-il, " de votre malheur ; car vraiment c'est une
bonne et belle femme, et bien aimable. Mais 1'Abbe de
la R * * * *, et 1'Abbe M * * * *, ne sont-ils pas encore
quelquefois chez elle?" "Oui assurement; car elle n'a
pas perdu un seul de vos amis." "Si vous aviez
gagne 1'Abbe M * * * * (avec du bon cafe a la creme)
a parler pour vous, vous auriez peut-etre reussi; car
il est raisonneur subtil comme Duns Scotus ou St.
Thomas ; il met ses arguments en si bon ordre qu'Us
deviennent presque irresistibles. Et si 1'Abbe de la
R * * avoit ete gagne (par quelque belle edition
d'un vieux classique) a parler contre vous, cela auroit
ete mieux; car j'ai toujours observe, que quand il lui
conseilla quelque chose, elle avoit un penchant tres-fort

FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

a faire le revers." A ces mots entra la nouvelle
Madame Helvetius avec le nectar; a 1'instant je 1'ai
reconnue pour etre Madame Franklin, mon ancienne
amie Americaine. Je 1'ai reclamee, mais elle me dit
froidement; "J'ai ete votre bonne femme quarante-
neuf annees et quatre mois ; — presqu'un demi-siecle ;
soyez content de cela. J'ai forme ici une nouvelle con-
nexion, qui durera a 1'eternite."

Indigne de ce refus de mon Eurydice, je pris de suite
la resolution de quitter ces ombres ingrates, et revenir
en ce bon monde, revoir le soleil et vous. — Me voici! —
Vengeom-nous !

TRANSLATION.

TO MADAME HELVETIUS.

MORTIFIED at the barbarous resolution pronounced by you so
positively yesterday evening, that you would remain single the rest
of your life, as a compliment due to the memory of your husband, I
retired to my chamber. Throwing myself upon my bed, I dreamt
that I was dead, and was transported to the Elysian Fields.

I was asked whether I wished to see any persons in particular ; to
which I replied, that I wished to see the philosophers. " There are
two who live here at hand in this garden ; they are good neighbours,
and very friendly towards one another." "Who are they?" " Socra-
tes and Helvetius." " I esteem them both highly ; but let me see
Helvetius first, because I understand a little French, but not a word
of Greek." I was conducted to him ; he received me with much
courtesy, having known me, he said, by character, some time past.
He asked me a thousand questions relative to the war, the present
state of religion, of liberty, of the government in France. " You
do not inquire, then," said I, " after your dear friend, Madame
Helvetius ; yet she loves you exceedingly ; I was in her company
not more than an hour ago." " Ah," said he, " you make me recur
to my past happiness, which ought to be forgotten in order to be
happy here. For many years I could think of nothing but her,
though at length I am consoled. I have taken another wife, the

MISCELLANEOUS. 205

most like hei that I could find; she is not indeed altogether so
handsome, but she has a great fund of wit and good sense ; and her
whole study is to please me. She is at this moment gone to fetch
the best nectar and ambrosia to regale me ; stay here awhile and
you will see her." " I perceive," said I, " that your former friend
is more faithful to you than you are to her ; she has had several
good offers, but has refused them all. I will confess to you that I
loved her extremely ; but she was cruel to me, and rejected me
peremptorily for your sake." " I pity you sincerely," said he, " for
she is an excellent woman, handsome and amiable. But do not
the Abbe de la R * * * * and the Abbe M ***** visit her?"
" Certainly they do ; not one of your friends has dropped her
acquaintance." " If you had gained the Abbe M * * * * with a
bribe of good coffee and cream, perhaps you would have succeeded :
for he is as deep a reasoner as Duns Scotus or St. Thomas ; he
arranges and methodizes his arguments in such a manner that they
are almost irresistible. Or, if by a fine edition of some old classic,
you had gained the Abbe de la R * * * * to speak against you, that
would have been still better ; as I always oberved, that when he
recommended any thing to her, she had a great inclination to do
directly the contrary." As he finished these words the new Madame
Helvetius entered with the nectar, and I recognised her imme-
diately as my former American friend, Mrs. Franklin ! I reclaimed
her, but she answered me coldly ; " I was a good wife to you for
forty-nine years and four months, nearly half a century ; let that
content you. I have formed a new connexion here, which will last
to eternity."

Indignant at this refusal of my Eurydice, I immediately resolved
to quit those ungrateful shades, and return to this good world again,
to behold the sun and you ! Here I am ; let us avenge ourselves !

VOL. II. R

206 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

TRES-HUMBLE REQUETE PRESENTEE A MADAME
HELVETIUS PAR SES CHATS.

[Probably written by the Abbe Morellet]

TRES-ILLUSTRE ET TRES-BOJTNE DAME,
Une nouvelle afireuse vient troubler le bonheur dont
nous jouissions dans votre basse-cour et dans votre
bucher. Nous apprenons que sur un expose calom-
nieux, nos ennemis, vos Abbes,* vous ont fait porter
une sentence de proscription centre nous; qu'a 1'aide
d'une invention diabolique, nous devons etre pris, mis
dans un tonneau, roules jusqu'a la riviere et abandonnes
a la merci des flots ; et au moment ou nous vous griffon-
nons notre tres-humble requete, nous entendons les
coups de la hache et du marteau de votre cocher, qui
fa£onne 1'instrument du supplice qu'on nous prepare.

Mais, tres-illustre dame, serons-nous done condamnes
sans etre entendus ; et serons-nous les seules de tant de
creatures vivante^s a vos depens qui ne trouverons pas
votre ame juste et sensible ? Nous voyons tous les
jours vos bienfaisantes mains nourrir deux ou trois cents
poulets, autant de serins, des pigeons sans nombre, tous
les moineaux de la banlieue, tous les merles du Bois de
Boulogne, et jusqu'a des chiens ; et nous seuls cesse-
rions d'eprouver les effets de votre bienfaisance, et, ce
qui est affreux a penser, nous deviendrions les objets
d'une cruaute bien etrangere a votre ame et que vous
n'aurez jamais eue que pour nous ? Non, la bonte natu-
relle de votre coeur vous ramenera a des sentimens plus
dignes de votre chateite.

Eh, quels crimes avons-nous commis? On nous
accuse, (le dirons-nous jusqu'ou s'emporte la calomnie ?)
on nous accuse de manger vos poulets lorsqu'ils sont
encore jeunes, de detourner de terns en terns quelques

* Morellet et La Roche.

MISCELLANEOUS. 207

pigeons, de guetter sans cesse vos serins, et d'en accro-
cher quelques-uns par les mailles du treillage de votre
voliere, et de laisser les souris infester votre maison.

Mais suffit-il d'imputer des crimes pour faire des
coupables 1 Nous pouvons repousser ces horribles ac-
cusations. Qu'il nous soit d'abord permis d'observer
qu'on ne les appuie d'aucunes preuves. Quand on
produiroit les pieds de quelques pigeons ou les plumes
d'un poulet, sont-ce la des temoins qui puissent etre
admis dans quelque tribunal que ce soit? Mais les
grands crimes sont les suites de la misere et du besoin,
et nous recevons tous les jours de vous, a dix-huit chats
que nous sommes, une subsistance abondante. II ne
nous manque rien. Egratignerions-nous la main qui
nous nourrit? Plus d'une fois, sous vos yeux, vos
poulets sont venus manger avec nous au meme plat,
sans que vous ayez appercu de notre part le plus leger
mouvement d'impatience ; et si 1'on vous dit que nous
ne mangeons jamais de poulets lorsqu'on nous observe,
que c'est la nuit que nous commettons les meurtres dont
on nous accuse, nous repondrons que ce sont nos calom-
niateurs qui se cachent dans les tenebres pour tramer
contre nous leurs laches complots, puisqu'ils sont re-
duits a nous imputer des crimes nocturnes, que dement
sans cesse notre conduite de tout le jour.

Mais, disent nos ennemis, la basse-cour de Madame
lui coute 25 louis par an, il s'y eleve environ deux . ou
trois cents poulets, elle n'en mange pas cinquante, qui
lui reviennent, par sa grande economie, a 12 livres la
piece ; et que devient le reste ?

Nous oserons le demander, d'abord nous a-t-on donne
les poulets en compte et en garde, et pouvons-nous en
repondre? Au milieu de ce grand nombre d'etres
destructeurs, les homines, tous convaincus que les
poulets ne sont au monde que pour etre manges par

208 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

eux, ce n'est pas sur nous que doivent porter les
premiers soup9ons. H se fait tous les Dimanches a la
porte du Bois de Boulogne et dans les cabarets d'Au-
teuil cent fricassees ; n'est-il pas plus que vraisemblable
qu'il s'y glisse quelques-uns de vos poulets ? et certes
ce n'est pas de nous que les aubergistes les tiennent.
Apres tout, Madame, et sans pretendre faire 1'apologie
des voleurs de poulets, qu'il nous soit permis d'observer
que quelles que soient les causes qui en diminuent un
peu le nombre, elles sont dans 1'ordre de la nature et
salutaires pour vous-meme dans leurs effets, puisqu'elles
contiennent dans des limites convenables la multiplica-
tion de cette espece, qui convertiroit bientot votre
maison toute entiere en un poulailler, et qui vous
reduiroit a n'avoir plus de chemises pour avoir plus de
poulets.

Quant aux pigeons, on a vu disparoitre, il est vrai,
plusieurs des enfans de Coco ; * mais il ne faut pas que
votre tendresse pour lui, qui va jusqu'a lui laisser casser
vos porcelaines pourvu qu'il daigne manger dans votre
main, vous rende injuste envers nous. Ou est la
preuve que nous ayons mange ses enfans ? Lui et ses
pareils s'approchent-ils jamais de nous ? Toujours sur
les toits, ou se tenant a distance, ne nous montrent-ils
pas une defiance dont nous aurions le droit d'etre
blesses 1 Qu'on visite tout le bucher au printems pro-
chain; et si 1'on decouvre quelque trace du meurtre,
nous serons les premiers a rechercher et a livrer le
coupable; mais quoi, les pigeons ne sont pas, comme
nous autres pauvres chats, attaches au sol qui les a vu
naitre ; ils peuvent voler par les airs a une autre
patrie ; ceux qui vous manquent, jaloux sans doute de
la preference que vous montrez a quelques-uns d'entre
eux, ont ete chercher 1'egalite dans des colombiers

* Pigeon apprivoise et favori de Madame Helvetius.

MISCELLANEOUS. 209

republicans, plutot que de trainer 1'aile sous la domina-
tion insolente de vos pigeons favoris.

L'accusation qu'on intente centre nous d'avoir attrape
quelques-uns de vos serins, est une imposture grossiere.
Les mailles de leur voliere sont si petites, que lorsqu'en
jouant nous essayons d'y passer nos pattes, nous avons
beaucoup de peine a les en retirer. Nous nous amu-
sons, il est vrai, quelquefois a voir de pres leurs jeux
innocens; mais nous n'avons pas a nous reprocher le
sang d'aucun de ces jolis oiseaux.

Nous ne nous defendrons pas de meme d'avoir
mange autant de moineaux, de merles et de grives, que
nous en avons pu attraper; mais ici nous avons pour
nous vos Abbes memes, nos plus cruels ennemis ; ils se
plaignent sans cesse du degat de cerises que les moi-
neaux font, disent-ils, a leur prejudice. Le Sieur Abbe
M * * * * montre une haine ardente contre les grives et
les merles, qui depouillent vos treilles de raisins, ainsi
que lui. Mais il nous semble, tres-illustre Dame, qu'il
vaudroit autant que vos raisins fussent manges par des
merles que par des Abbes, et qu'en vain ferons-nous la
chasse a ces pillards ailes, si vous tolerez chez vous
d'autres voleurs a deux pieds sans plumes qui y font
encore de plus grands degats.

Nous savons qu'on nous accuse aussi de manger les
rossignols qui ne volent rien, et qui chantent, dit-on, fort
agreablement. II se peut en effet que nous en ayons
croque quelques-uns, dans 1'ignorance ou nous etions
de votre affection particuliere pour eux ; mais leur plu-
mage terne et gris ressemble beaucoup a celui des
moineaux, et nous ne nous connoissons pas assez en
musique pour distinguer le ramage des uns et des
autres, Un chat de M. Piccini * nous a dit, que quand

* Compositeur Italien.

VOL. ii. 27 R*

210 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

on ne savoit que miauler on ne pouvoit pas juger de 1'art
du chant, et cette maxime suffit a notre justification.
Cependant nous mettrons desormais le plus grand sob
a distinguer les Gluckistes* qui sont, nous a-t-il dit, les
moineaux, des Picdnistes, qui sont les rossignols. Nous
vous supplions seulement de nous pardonner les erreurs
ou nous pourrions tomber en denichant quelque couvee
de Piccinistes, qu'il est impossible de reconnoitre lors-
qu'ils sont sans plumes, et qu'ils n'ont pas encore
appris & chanter.

La derniere imputation que nous repousserons, tres-
illustre Dame, est celle qu'on tire contre nous du grand
nombre de souris dont votre maison est infestee. Elles
font, dit-on, un degat horrible dans votre Sucre et vos
confitures ; elles rongent les livres de vos savans, et
jusqu'aux mules de Mademoiselle Luillierf dans le terns
meme qu'elle marche. On pretend que les chats
n'etant crees et mis au monde par la Providence, (qui
veille avec une egale bonte sur les chats et les souris,)
que pour manger les souris, quand ils ne remplissent
pas leur destination, on n'a rien de mieux a faire que de
les noyer.

Certainement, tres-illustre Dame, il vous est aise de
reconnoitre le langage de 1'interet personnel dans la
bouche de nos accusateurs. Le Sieur Cabanis,J qui
fait chez vous une consommation enorme de confitures
et qui va sans cesse derobant des morceaux de sucre
lorsqu'il croit n'etre pas vu, a ses raisons pour vous
faire regarder comme un crime capital la gourman-
dise de quelques souris qui ecornent un pain, ou enta-
ment avant lui un pot de gelee de groseilles ; mais il
montre une ame encore plus atroce qu'interessee lors-

* Cluck, compositeur Allemand.

f Vieille femme-de-chambre de Madame H.

J Ami de Madame H. demeurant chez elle.

MISCELLANEOUS. 211

qu'il nous juge dignes de mort parce que nous n'empe-
chons pas ces petites betes de faire la millieme partie
d'un degat que lui-meme, tout grand qu'il est, fait sans
discretion comme sans remords; et pousseroit-il plus
loin sa barbaric envers nous si, comme lui et les souris,
nous etions nous-memes des animaux sucro'-phages et
conftturi-vores 1 N'est-il pas manifeste que sa gour-
mandise seule lui inspire des sentimens si cruels, et
pourriez-vous leur donner entree dans votre coeur 1

Pour les livres du Sieur Abbe de la Roche et de cet
autre savant,* dont nous avons lu tout-a-1'heure le dis-
cours a 1'Academie enveloppant un mou de veau que
vous avez eu la bonte de nous faire donner ; quel est
done le grand mal que les souris mangent un peu de
leurs bouquins? A quoi leurs servent toutes leurs
lectures? Depuis qu'ils vivent aupr£s de vous, ne
doivent-ils pas s'etre pleinement convaincus de 1'inutilite
du savoir ? Us vous voient bonne, sans le secours d'au-
cun Traite de Morale; amiable sans avoir lu I'Jlrt de
Plaire de notre historiographe Moncrief, et heureuse
sans connoitre le Traite, du Bonheur, du malheureux
Maupertuis ; en meme terns qu'ils sont les temoins jour-
naliers de votre profonde ignorance. Us savent beau-
coup de choses, mais ils ignorent 1'art que vous savez
si bien de vous passer de rien savoir. Votre orthographe
n'est pas beaucoup meilleure que la notre, et votre
ecriture ne vaut pas mieux que notre griffonage. Vous
ecrivez boneure pour bonheur ; mais vous possedez la
chose sans savoir comment son nom s'ecrit; enfin, ce
bonheur meme qu'ils ne savent pas puiser dans leurs
livres, du haut de votre ignorance vous le repandez sur
eux. Les souris ne leur font done pas un si grand tort

Quant aux mules de Mademoiselle Luillier, pour peu
qu'elle voulut aller moins lentement, les souris ne lui

*L'Abb6Morellet

212 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

mangeroient pas les pieds ; et il est etrange qu'on nous
condamne a la mort parce que votre femme-de-chambre
n'a gueres plus de mouvement qu'un lima^on.

Ces raisons si fortes ne sont pas encore les seules qui
peuvent nous excuser envers vous des degats que les
souris font dans votre maison.

Ah ! tres-illustre Dame, en quelle conscience peut-on
se plaindre de ce que nous ne prenons pas vos souris,
lorsque vous avez sans cesse aupres de vous deux
monstres alteres de notre sang, qui ne nous permettent
pas d'approcher de votre chere personne, comme la
reconnoissance et le devoir nous y porteroient? deux
chiens, c'est tout dire ; animaux nourris dans la haine
des chats, dont les aboiemens continuels nous remplis-
sent de terreur. Comment ose-t-on nous reprocher de
nous tenir eloignes des lieux ou regnent ces animaux
feroces, en qui la nature a mis 1'aversion pour notre race
et la force pour la detruire ? Encore, si nous n'avions
affaire qu'a des chiens Francois, leur haine ne seroit
pas si active, leur ferocite seroit moindre ; mais vous
etes toujours accompagnee d'un bull-dog que vous avez
fait venir d'Angleterre (au mepris des sages disposi-
tions de M. le Controleur-General), et qui nous hait
doublement, comme chats Francois. Nous voyons, sous
nos yeux, tous les jours, les cruels effets de sa rage,
dans la queue depouillee de notre frere Le JYbir. No-
tre zele pour votre service, et meme le gout que nous
avons pour les souris nous conduiroit a la chasse dans
vos appartemens, si nous n'en etions pas bannis par ces
ennemis redoutables que vous en avez rendus les mai-
tres. Qu'on cesse done de nous reprocher les desordres
que causent chez vous les souris, puisqu'on nous met
dans 1'impossibilite de les reprimer.

Helas ! ils ne sont plus ces terns heureux, ou 1'illustre
chat Pompon regnoit dans ces memes lieux, dormoit sur

MISCELLANEOUS. 213

vos genoux, et reposoit sur votre couche ; ou cette
Zemire* aujourd'hui si ardente a nous chasser de chez
vous, et qui entre en fureur au seul mot de chat, faisoit
humblement sa cour au favori dont elle occupe aujour-
d'hui la place. Alors nous marchions la queue levee
dans toute la maison. Feu M. Pompon daignoit quel-
quefois partager avec le dernier d'entre nous les lapins
que Sa Majeste lui envoyoit de sa chasse, et a 1'ombre
du credit de cet illustre favori nous jouissions de quel-
que paix et de quelque bonheur. Cet heureux terns
n'est plus ! Nous vivons sous un regne de chien, et
nous regrettons sans cesse le chat, sous 1'empire duquel
nous avons coule de si beaux jours ! Aussi aliens-nous
toutes les nuits arroser de nos pleurs le pied du cypres
que couvre sa tombe.

Ah! tres-illustre Dame, que le souvenir du chat que
vous avez tant aime, vous touche au moins de quelque
pitie pour nous. Nous ne sommes pas a la verite de sa
race, puisqu'il fut voue des sa jeunesse a la chastete ;
mais nous sommes de son espece. Ses manes, errans
encore dans ces lieux, vous demandent la revocation de
1'ordre sanguinaire qui menace nos jours ; nous emploie-
rons tous ceux que vous conserverez a vous miauler
notre vive reconnoissance, et nous la transmettrons aux
coeurs de nos enfans et des enfans de nos enfans.

* Petite chienne.

214 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

TRANSLATION.
AN HUMBLE PETITION, PRESENTED TO MADAME

HELVETIUS BY HER CATS.

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND EXCELLENT LADY,

A terrible piece of news has just reached us, to interrupt the
happiness we enjoyed in your poultry-yard and wood-yard. We
learn that, in consequence of certain calumnious representations on
the part of our enemies, your Abbes,* a sentence of proscription has
been issued against us, and that by means of a diabolical invention
we are all to be seized, put into a cask, rolled down to the river,
and abandoned to the mercy of the waters. At the moment in
which we are drawing up this our humble request, we hear the
strokes of the hammer and hatchet from the hands of your coach-
man, who is employed to frame the instrument of our destruction.

But, most illustrious Lady, shall we be condemned without being
heard? and shall we be the only creatures among so many fed and
nourished by you, who do not find your bosom alive to justice and
compassion? We see your beneficent hand every day feeding two
or three hundred chickens, as many canary-birds, pigeons without
number, all the sparrows of the neighbourly*^, all the blackbirds of
the Wood of Boulogne, nay, even the very dogs of your domain ;
and shall we alone not only cease to experience the effects of your
beneficence, but, what is more terrible to think of, become the
objects of a cruelty wholly foreign to your nature, and never exer-
cised but towards us ? No, the natural goodness of your heart will
recall in you sentiments more worthy of your catology.

Alas ! what are the crimes that we have committed ! We are
accused — to what lengths will not calumny transport the heart ! —
we are accused of eating your chickens while they are still young, of
making depredations from time to time upon your pigeons, of watch-
ing your canary-birds incessantly, and seizing any that come near
enough to the lattice of your aviary, and of suffering the mice to
infest your house unmolested.

But are imputed crimes sufficient to render any one guilty ?
These horrible accusations we can easily repel. In the first place,
it must be observed, that they do not rest upon any proofs. Granted
that the feet of some pigeons, or the feathers of some chickens, may

* The Abbes Morellet and La Roche.

MISCELLANEOUS. 215

be produced ; can these be admitted as evidence before any tribunal
upon earth ? Great crimes are, besides, the consequences of great
misery and want, and we receive every day from you, to the number
of eighteen cats, of which our troop consists, abundant means of
subsistence ; nothing is wanting to us. And can we be supposed to
scratch the hand by which we are nourished ? Have you not, more
than once, with your own eyes, seen your chickens come and eat off
the same dish with us, without the least hostile movement on our
part ? And if you are told that we never eat the chickens when con-
scious that we are observed, that it is by night our murders are
committed, we answer, that it is our calumniators who hide them-
selves under the veil of darkness to frame their cruel plots against
us. This we may the rather say, since they are reduced to impute
to us nocturnal crimes, which are contradicted by our conduct
throughout the day.

But, say our enemies, the poultry-yard of our most illustrious lady
is maintained at an expense of twenty-five louis annually, while, of
two or three hundred chickens reared there, she never eats more
than fifty; so that, from her great economy, they cost her only
twelve livres each ; what then becomes of the rest ?

We will ask, in the first place, were the chickens numbered and
consigned to our care, and are we answerable for them ? Sur-
rounded by so many destructive beings, by mankind in particular,
who are firmly persuaded that chickens were only created to be
eaten by them, is it on us that the first suspicion can with justice
fall ? Every Sunday, at the gate of the Wood of Boulogne, and in
the public houses of Auteuil, a hundred fricassees are served up ; is
it not probable that some of your chickens may have glided gently in
among them ? and certainly it is not by us that they are remitted to
the innkeepers. After all, Madam, without wishing to become the
apologists of chicken-stealers, let us be permitted to observe, that
whatever may be the causes which occasion the diminution com-
plained of in your stock of poultry, they are in the order of nature,
and produce a salutary effect to yourself, since they restrain within
due bounds the multiplication of this species, which, if suffered to go
on unrestrained, would soon convert your whole house into a recep-
tacle for chickens, and reduce you to going without a shift, that no
limits may be placed to the number of your fowls.

As to the pigeons, it must be allowed that several of the children
of Coco * have disappeared ; but you must not permit your tenderness

* A favorite tame pigeon of Madame Helvetius, to which she had given
that name.

216 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

for him, which goes so far as to suffer him to break your china, pro-
vided he will condescend to eat out of your hand, to render you
unjust towards us. Where is the proof that we have ever eaten any
of his children 1 or do we and his species ever approach each other ?
Always keeping upon the roofs of the houses at a distance from us,
do they not manifest a distrust "of us, at which we have just reason
to be offended 1 Let the whole wood-yard be examined next spring,
and if any traces of murder be discovered, we will be among the
most forward in endeavouring to detect the malefactors, and give
them up to justice. But the pigeons are not like us poor humble
cats, confined to the soil where we were born ; they can fly in the
air to another country ; those whom you miss, jealous no doubt of
the preference shown by you to some over the rest, have taken their
flight in search of equality, to some republican dove-cote, rather
than drag on a painful existence under the insolent tyranny of your
favorite Coco.

The accusation brought against us with regard to the canary-
birds, you must see yourself is wholly absurd, and a gross imposture.
The intervals in the lattice of your aviary are so narrow, that when
sometimes we have in sport endeavoured to thrust a paw through
them, it was not without the utmost difficulty that we could withdraw
it again. It is true, that we sometimes amuse ourselves with watch-
ing the little innocent sports of these pretty creatures, but we cannot
reproach ourselves with having ever shed a drop of their blood.

We shall not endeavour to defend ourselves equally from devouring
as many sparrows, blackbirds, and thrushes, as we can possibly catch.
But here we have to plead in extenuation, that our most cruel
enemies, your Abbes themselves, are incessantly complaining of the
ravages made by these birds among the cherries and other fruit.
The Sieur Abbe Morellet, in particular, is always thundering the
most violent anathemas against the blackbirds and thrushes, for
plundering your vines, which they do with as little mercy as he him-
self. To us, however, most illustrious Lady, it appears that the
grapes may just as well be eaten by blackbirds as by Abbes, and
that our warfare against the winged plunderers will be fruitless, if
you encourage other biped and featherless pilferers, who make ten
times more havoc.

We know that we are also accused of eating nightingales, who
never plunder, and sing, as they say, most enchantingly. It is
indeed possible that we may now and then have gratified our palates
with a delicious morsel in this way, but we can assure you that it
was in utter ignorance of your affection for the species ; and that,

MISCELLANEOUS. 217

resembling sparrows in their plumage, we, who make no pretensions
to being connoisseurs in music, could not distinguish the song of the
one from that of the other, and therefore supposed ourselves regaling
only on sparrows. A cat belonging to M. Piccini * has assured us,
that they who only know how to mew, cannot be any judges of the
art of singing ; and on this we rest for our justification. However,
we will henceforward exert our utmost endeavours to distinguish the
Glucldsts,^ who are, as we are informed, the sparrows, from the
Piccinists, who are the nightingales. We only intreat of you to
pardon the inadvertence into which we may possibly fall, if, in
roving after nests, we may sometimes fall upon a brood of Piccinists,
who, being then destitute of plumage, and not having learnt to sing,
will have no mark by which to distinguish them.

The last imputation we are called upon to repel, most illustrious
Lady, is that of suffering your house to be infested with such a
quantity of mice. They make terrible havoc, it is said, with your
sugar and sweetmeats ; they gnaw the books of your savans, and
even nibble the slippers of Mademoiselle Luillier, J as she is walking.
It is urged, that cats, being created by Providence (who watches
with equal goodness over all his creatures) for no other purpose but
to eat mice, deserve nothing better when they fail in the object of
their vocation, than to be drowned.

Certainly, most illustrious Lady, it is easy to discover in this lan-
guage, the influence of personal interest in the mouths of oui
accusers. The Sieur Cabanis,§ who makes an enormous consump-
tion of sweetmeats in your house, and who is always ready to steal a
lump of sugar when he thinks he can do it unobserved, has certainly
very good reasons for making you consider the gonrmandise of a few
mice, who nibble a loaf of sugar, or begin eating a pot of jelly before
him, as a capital crime ; but he shows a mind still more atrocious
than interested, when he would condemn us as meriting death
because we do not prevent the little animals availing themselves, to
the best of their power, of a system of spoliations which he himself,
great as he is, practises every day without discretion and without
remorse. Could he carry his barbarity towards us further, if we
were, like the mice and himself, sugarivorous and siocctmcativorous
animals? Is it not manifest, that gourmandise alone inspires him

* An Italian composer.

f The admirers of Cluck, a German composer.

J An old waiting-maid of Madame Helvetius.

§ A friend of Madame Helvetius, who lived in her house.

ii. 28 s

218 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

with sentiments so cruel, and can you give them admission into your
bosom?

With regard to the books of the Abbe de la Roche, and that
other savant* whose speech at the Academy we just now read as it
wrapped up a calf's lights which you had the goodness to give us ;
with regard to their books, we ask, where is the great harm if they
are sometimes gnawed a little by the mice? Of what use to them is
all their reading ? Since they have lived with you, must they not
be fully convinced of the inutility of all knowledge ? They see you
good without the assistance of Treatises upon Morals ; charming in
your manners without having read our historiographer Moncrief's
Art of Pleasing; and happy without being acquainted with the
Treatise on Happiness, by the unfortunate Maupertuis. While
they are the daily witnesses of your profound ignorance, they, who
know so many things, are wholly unacquainted with the art you
know so well, — of being able to dispense with knowing any thing.
Your orthography is not much better than ours, and your writing is
very like the scratching of a cat's paw. You totally mistake the
way to spell happiness, but you enjoy the thing without knowing how
it should be written ; that happiness, in short, which they cannot draw
from their books, you shed around them from the eminence of your
ignorance. The mice cannot, therefore, as we have proved, do
them any great injury. As to the slippers of Mademoiselle Luillier,
if she would only creep on at a somewhat less drawling pace, the mice
would not be able to get at them ; and it is strange that you would
condemn us to death because your waiting-maid moves only a
snail's pace.

But these reasons, strong as they are, are not the only ones which
may excuse us towards you for the spoliations committed in your
house by the mice. Ah! most illustrious Lady, with what con-
science can we be reproached for not catching them, when you have
constantly about you two large dogs thirsting for our blood, who will
not permit us to approach your beloved person, as duty and gratitude
would lead us to do ? Two dogs ! this is saying enough ; they are
animals brought up in the utmost hatred of our species ; their bark-
ing always fills us with terror. How can any one be so unjust as
to reproach us with keeping at a distance from places where animals
thus ferocious, whom nature has inspired with such aversion to us,
and such power to destroy us, reign uncontrolled ? Nay, farther, if
the question were only of French dogs, there might be hopes that
their hatred would not be so active, that their ferocity would not be

* The Abbe Morellet

MISCELLANEOUS. 219

so alarming ; but you must needs take into your service (in contempt
of the wise decrees of the comptroller-general) a bull-dog which you
have imported from England, who hates us doubly ; in the first
place, as cats, and still more ardently as French cats. We see daily
before our eyes the cruel effects of his rage in the shortened tail of
our brother Le Noir. Our zeal to serve you, united with the natu-
ral taste we have for mice, would lead us to form hunting-parties in
your apartments, if we were not banished by these formidable
enemies, whom you have made masters of them. Let us no longer,
therefore, be reproached with the disorders committed against you
by the mice, since we are deprived of the possibility of repressing
them.

Alas ! those happy times are no more, when that illustrious cat
Pompon reigned in these places, slept in your lap, and reposed upon
your couch ! when that Zemira* who now so eagerly endeavours to
procure our downfall, humbly paid his court to the favorite whose
situation he now occupies. Then could we parade about the house
with our tails in the air ; the late M. Pompon would sometimes con-
descend to share with us the rabbits graciously sent him by His
Majesty from his shooting-parties ; and under the protection of this
illustrious favorite we enjoyed peace and happiness. Those happy
times, we must repeat, are, alas ! no more ; we live under the reign
of a DOG ; sunk in deep and lasting regrets for the CAT, beneath
whose empire such enjoyments were ours, while our only consolation
is to go every night, and water with our tears the cypress which
shadows his tomb !

Ah, most illustrious Lady ! let the memory of the cat you so much
loved, inspire you at least with some compassion towards us. We
are not indeed of his race, since he was devoted to chastity from
his youth ; but we are of his species. His manes, still wandering
about this spot, call upon you to revoke the sanguinary order which
menaces our days ; and all those which you preserve to us shall be
consecrated to mewing forth our lasting gratitude, while tke be-
neficent act shall be handed down by us to our children's children, f

* A little dog.

f In this article, and in the others under the head of BAGATELLES, both
the French and the translations are printed as they stand in W. T.
Franklin's edition. — EDITOR.

220 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

A MONSIEUR L'ABBE DE LA ROCHE, A AUTEUIL.

J'AI parcouru, mon cher ami, le petit livre de poesies
de M. Helvetius, dont vous m'avez fait cadeau. Le
poe'me sur le Bonheur m'a donne beaucoup de plaisir,
et m'a fait ressouvenir d'une petite chanson a boire,
que j'ai faite il y a quarante ans sur le meme sujet, et qui
avoit a-peu-pres le meme plan, et plusieurs des memes
pensees, mais bien densement exprimees. La voici.

Singer.

Fair Venus calls; her voice obey,
In beauty's arms spend night and day.
The joys of love all joys excel,
And loving 's certainly doing well.

Chorus.

Oh! no!

Not so!

For honest souls know,

Friends and a bottle still bear the bell.

Singer.

Then let us get money, like bees lay up honey ;
We'll build us new hives, and store each cell.
The sight of our treasure shall yield us great pleasure ;
We'll count it, and chink it, and jingle it well.

Chorus.

* Oh ! no !

Not so!

For honest souls know,

Friends and a bottle still bear the bell.

Singer.

If this does not fit ye, let 's govern the city,

In power is pleasure no tongue can tell ;

By crowds though you 're teased, your pride shall be pleased,

4nd this can make Lucifer happy in hell!

MISCELLANEOUS. 221

Chorus.

Oh! no!

Not so!

For honest souls know,

Friends and a bottle still bear the bell.

Singer.

Then toss off your glasses, and scorn the dull asses,
Who, missing the kernel, still gnaw the shell ;
What's love, rule, or riches? Wise Solomon teaches,
They're vanity, vanity, vanity still.

Chorus.

That 's true ;

He knew;

He'd tried them all through;

Friends and a bottle still bore the bell.

C'est un chanteur, mon cher Abbe, qui exhorte ses
compagnons de chercher le bonheur dans Vamour, dans
les richesses, et dans le pouvoir. Us repliquent, chan-
tant ensemble, que le bonheur ne se trouve pas en aucu-
nes de ces choses, et qu'on ne le trouve que dans les
amis et le vin. A cette position, le chanteur enfin con-
sent. La phrase " bear the bell" signifie en Frai^ois
remporter le prix.

J'ai souvent remarque, en lisant les ouvrages de
M. Helvetius, que quoique nous etions nes et eleves
dans deux pays si eloignes Pun de 1'autre, nous nous
sommes rencontres souvent dans les memes pensees ; et
c'est une reflexion bien flatteuse pour moi, que nous
avons aime les memes etudes, et autant que nous les
avions connus, les memes amis,* et la memefemme.\
Adieu ! mon cher ami, &c. B. F.

* Messrs. Voltaire, Hume, Turgot, Marmontel, d'Holbach, Le Roy, les
Abb6s Morellet et La Roche, &c. &c. — W. T. P.
f Madame Helvetius.

S*

222 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

TRANSLATION.

TO THE ABBE DE LA ROCHE, AT AUTEUIL.

I HAVE run over, my dear friend, the little book of poetry, by
M. Helvetius, with which you presented me. The poem on
Happiness pleased me much, and brought to my recollection a
little drinking song, which I wrote forty years ago upon the same
subject, and which is nearly on the same plan, with many of the
same thoughts, but very concisely expressed. It is as follows.

Singer.
Fair Venus calls, &c.

'Tis a singer, my dear Abbe, who exhorts his companions to
seek happiness in love, in riches, and in power. They reply,
singing together, that happiness is not to be found in any of these
things ; that it is only to be found in friends and wine. To this
proposition the singer at length assents. The phrase " bear the
bell, " answers to the French expression, " obtain the prize. "

I have often remarked, in reading the works of M. Helvetius,
that, although we were born and educated in two countries so
remote from each other, we have often been inspired with the
same thoughts ; and it is a reflection very flattering to me, that we
have not only loved the same studies, but, as far as we have mutually
known them, the same friends, and the same woman.
Adieu ! my dear friend, &c.

B F.

A MONSIEUR L'ABBfe MORELLET.

IT, le * > *.

Vous m'avez souvent egaye, mon tres-cher ami, par
vos excellentes chansons a boire ; en echange, je desire
vous edifier par quelques reflexions Chretiennes, morales
et philosophiques, sur le meme sujet.

In vino veritas, dit le sage. La verite est dans le vin.
Avant Noe done, les hommes, n'ayant que de 1'eau a

MISCELLANEOUS.

boire, ne pouvoient pas trouver la verite. Ainsi ils
s'egarerent, ils devinrent abominablement mediants,
et ils furent justement extermines par I'eau qu'ils
aimoient a boire.

Ce bon-homme Noe, ayant vu que par cette mauvaise
boisson tous ses contemporains avoient peri, le prit en
aversion ; et Dieu, pour le desalterer, crea la vigne, et
lui revela 1'art d'en faire du vin. Par 1'aide de cette
liqueur, il decouvrit maintes et maintes verites ; et de-
puis son temps, le mot " dermer" a ete en usage,
signifiant originairement decouvrir par le moyen du VIN.
Ainsi le patriarche Joseph pretendoit deviner au moyen
d'une coupe ou verre de VIN ; * liqueur qui a re9u ce
nom pour marquer qu'elle n'etoit pas une invention
humaine, mais divine ; (autre preuve de 1'antiquite de la
langue Fran9oise, centre M. Gebelin.)f Aussi, depuis
ce temps, toutes les choses excellentes, meme les Deites,
ont ete appelees divines ou divmites.

On parle de la conversion de I'eau en vin, a la noce
de Cana, comme d'un miracle. Mais cette conversion
est faite tous les jours, par la bonte de Dieu, sous nos
yeux. Voila I'eau qui tombe des cieux sur nos vigno-
bles, et alors elle entre dans les racines des vignes pour
etre changee en vin ; preuve constante que Dieu nous
aime, et qu'il aime a nous voir heureux. Le miracle
particulier a ete fait seulement pour hater 1'operation,
dans une circonstance de besoin soudain, qui le deman-
doit.

II est vrai que Dieu a aussi instruit les hommes a
reduire le vin en eau. Mais quelle espece d'eau ? C'est

* L'orateur Remain, qui est bien connu par ses mauvaises poesies,
d'etre un buveur d'eau, confesse franchement, dans son livre De Diviy-
ationc, qu'il ne savoit pas deviner. " Quid futurum sit non rftvmo." —
AUTHOR.

t Author of "Le Monde primitif compare au Monde modern e"

224 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

/'ecm-de-vie. Et cela, afin que par-la ils puissent, au
besom, faire le miracle de Cana, et convertir 1'eau
ordinaire en cette espece excellente de vin, qu'on appelle
punch I

Mon frere Chretien, soyez bienveillant et bienfaisant
comme lui, et ne gatez pas son bon ouvrage. II a fait
le vin pour nous rejouir. Quand vous voyez votre
voisin a table verser du vin dans son verre, ne vous
hatez pas a y verser du 1'eau. Pourquoi voulez-vous
noyer la verite ? 11 est vraisemblable que votre voisin
sait mieux que vous ce qui lui convient. Peut-etre il
n'aime pas 1'eau ; peut-etre il ne veut mettre que quel-
ques gouttes, par complaisance pour la mode ; peut-etre
il ne veut pas qu'un autre observe combien peu il en
met dans son verre. Done, n'offrez 1'eau qu'aux
enfans; c'est une fausse politesse, et bien incommode.
Je vous dis ceci comme homme du monde ; et je finirai,
comme j'ai commence, en bon Chretien, en vous faisant
une observation religieuse bien importante, et tiree de
1'Ecriture Sainte; savoir que 1'apotre Paul conseilloit
bien serieusement a Timothee de mettre du vin dans
son eau pour la sante ; mais que pas un des apotres, ni
aucuns des saints peres, n'ont jamais conseille de mettre
de 1'eau dans le vin ! B. F.

P. S. Pour vous confirmer encore plus dans votre
piete et reconnoissance £ la Providence Divine, reflechis-
sez sur la situation qu'elle a donnee au coude. Vous
voyez aussi que les animaux qui doivent boire 1'eau qui
coule sur la terre, s'ils ont des jambes longues, ont aussi
un cou long, afin qu'ils puissent atteindre leur boisson
sans la peine de se mettre a genoux. Mais 1'homme,
qui etoit destine ^, boire du vin, doit etre en etat de por-
ter le verre a sa bouche. Si le coude avoit etc place
plus pres de la main, la partie d'avant auroit ete trop

MISCELLANEOUS. 225

courte pour approcher le verre de la bouche ; et s'il
avoit ete place plus pres de 1'epaule, la partie seroit si
longue qu'il porteroit le verre au-dela de la tete. Ainsi
nous aurions ete tantalises. Mais par la presente situa-
tion du coude nous sommes en etat de boire a notre
aise ; le verre venant justement a la bouche. — Adorons
done, le verre a la main, cette sagesse bienveillante !
Adorons, et buvons !

TRANSLATION.

TO THE ABBE MORELLET.

Passy, * * *.

You have often enlivened me, my dear friend, by your excellent
drinking songs ; in return, I beg to edify you by some Christian,
moral, and philosophical reflections upon the same subject.

In vino veritas, says the wise man, — Truth is in wine. Before
the days of Noah then, men, having nothing but water to drink,
could not discover the truth. Thus they went astray, became
abominably wicked, and Were justly exterminated by water, which
they loved to drink.

The good man Noah, seeing that through this pernicious bev-
erage all his cotemporaries had perished, took it in aversion ; and,
to quench his thirst, God created the vine, and revealed to him the
means of converting its fruit into wine. By means of this liquor he
discovered numberless important truths ; so that ever since his time
the word to divine has been in common use, signifying originally
to discover by means of WINE. Thus the patriarch Joseph took
upon himself to divine by means of a cup or glass of WINE;* a
liquor which obtained this name to show that it was not of human
but divine invention (another proof of the antiquity of the French
language, in opposition to M. Gebelin) ; nay, since that time, all
things of peculiar excellence, even the Deities themselves, have been
called Divine or Dignities.

* The Roman orator, who is well known by his bad poetry to have
been a water-drinker, frankly acknowledges in his book De Divinations,
that he did not know how to divine. " QwtW futurum sit non divino"

VOL. ii. 29

226 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage
in Cana, as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the
goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain,
which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incor-
porates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine ; a constant
proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. The miracle
in question was only performed to hasten the operation, under cir-
cumstances of present necessity, which required it.

It is true that God has also instructed man to reduce wine into
water. But into what sort of water ? — Water of Life* And
this, that man may be able upon occasion to perform the miracle
of Cana, and convert common water into that excellent species
of wine which we call punch.

My Christian brother, be kind and benevolent like God, and do
not spoil his good work. He made wine to gladden the heart of
man; — do not, therefore, when at table you see your neighbour
pour wine into his glass, be eager to mingle water with it. Why
would you drown truth 1 It is probable that your neighbour knows
better than you can, what suits him. Perhaps he does not like
water ; perhaps he would only put in a few drops for fashion's sake ;
perhaps he does not wish any one to observe how much he puts in
his glass. Do not then offer water except to children ; 't is a
mistaken piece of politeness, and often very inconvenient. I give
you this hint as a man of the world ; and I will finish as I began,
like a good Christian, in making a religious observation of high
importance, taken from the Holy Scriptures; I mean that the
apostle Paul counselled Timothy very seriously to put wine into his
water for the sake of his health ; but that not one of the apostles or
holy fathers ever recommended putting water to wine.

B. F.

P. S. To confirm still more your piety and gratitude to Divine
Providence, reflect upon the situation which it has given to the
elbow. You see in animals who are intended to drink the waters
that flow upon the earth, that if they have long legs, they have also
a long neck, so that they can get at their drink without kneeling
down. But man, who was destined to drink wine, is framed in a
manner that he may raise the glass to his mouth. If the elbow had
been placed nearer the hand, the part in advance would have been
too short to bring the glass up to the mouth ; and if it had been
nearer the shoulder, that part would have been so long, that when

* Eau-de-vie, that is, brandy.

MISCELLANEOUS. 227

it attempted to carry the wine to the mouth it would have overshot
the mark, and gone beyond the head ; thus, either way, we should
have been in the case of Tantalus. But from the actual situation of
the elbow we are enabled to drink at our ease, the glass going
directly to the mouth. Let us, then, with glass in hand, adore this
benevolent wisdom ; — let us adore and drink !

AN ECONOMICAL PROJECT.

TO THE AUTHORS OF THE JOURNAL OF PARIS.

MESSIEURS, *

You often entertain us with accounts of new dis-
coveries. Permit me to communicate to the public,
through your paper, one that has lately been made
by myself, and which I conceive may be of great
utility.

I was the other evening in a grand company, where
the new lamp of Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was
introduced, and much admired for its splendor ; but
a general inquiry was made, whether the oil it con-
sumed was not in proportion to the light it afforded,
in which case there would be no saving in the use of
it. No one present could satisfy us in that point,
which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very
desirable thing to lessen, if possible, the expense of
lighting our apartments, when every other article of
family expense was so much augmented.

I was pleased to see this general concern for econ-
omy, for I love economy exceedingly.

I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after
midnight, with my head full of the subject. An acci-
dental sudden noise waked me about six in the morn-
ing, when I was surprised to find my room filled with

228 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

light ; and I imagined at first, that a number of those
lamps had been brought into it ; but, rubbing my eyes,
I perceived the light came in at -the windows. I got
up and looked out to see what might be the
occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the
horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into
my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted,
the preceding evening, to close the shutters.

I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found
that it was but six o'clock ; and still thinking it some-
thing extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I
looked into the almanac, where I found it to be the
hour given for his rising 6n that day. I looked for-
ward, too, and found he was to rise still earlier every
day till towards the end of June ; and that at no time
in the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight
o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen
any signs of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard
the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much
astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so
early ; and especially when I assure them, that he gives
light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this. I
am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of
any fact. I saw it with my own eyes. And, having
repeated this observation the three following mornings,
I found always precisely the same result.

Yet it so happens, that when I speak of this dis-
covery to others, I can easily perceive by their counte-
nances, though they forbear expressing it in words, that
they do not quite believe me. One, indeed, who is a
learned natural philosopher, has assured me that I must
certainly be mistaken as to the circumstance of the
light coming into my room ; for it being well known, as
he says, that there could be no light abroad at that
hour, it follows that none could enter from without;

MISCELLANEOUS. 229

and that of consequence, my windows being acciden-
tally left open, instead of letting in the light, had only
served to let out the darkness; and he used many
ingenious arguments to show me how I might, by that
means, have been deceived. I owned that he puzzled
me a little, but he did not satisfy me ; and the subse-
quent observations I made, as above mentioned, con-
firmed me in my first opinion.

This event has given rise in my mind to several
serious and important reflections. I considered that,
if I had not been awakened so early in the morning, I
should have slept six hours longer by the light of the
sun, and in exchange have lived six hours the following
night by candle-light ; and, the latter being a much
more expensive light than the former, my love of econ-
omy induced me to muster up what little arithmetic I
was master of, and to make some calculations, which I
shall give you, after observing that utility is, in my
opinion, the test of value in matters of invention, and
that a discovery which can be applied to no use, or is
not good for something, is good for nothing.

I took for the basis of my calculation the supposition
that there are one hundred thousand families in Paris,
and that these families consume in the night half a
pound of bougies, or candles, per hour. I think this
is a moderate allowance, taking one family with anoth-
er; for though I believe some consume less, I know
that many consume a great deal more. Then estima-
ting seven hours per day as the medium quantity be-
tween the time of the sun's rising and ours, he rising
during the six following months from six to eight hours
before noon, and there being seven hours of course per
night in which we burn candles, the account will stand
thus ; —

VOL. II. T

FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

In the six months between the 20th of March and
the 20th of September, there are

Nights . ' . . . ^ ; !;;. 183

Hours of each night in which we burn
candles . . .* j-?v . V . 7

Multiplication gives for the total number

of hours . 1,281

These 1,281 hours multiplied by
100,000, the number of inhabitants, give 128,100,000
One hundred twenty-eight millions and
one hundred thousand hours, spent at
Paris by candle-light, which, at half a
pound of wax and tallow per hour,
gives the weight of . . . . 64,050,000
Sixty-four millions and fifty thousand of
pounds, which, estimating the whole at
the medium price of thirty sols the
pound, makes the sum of ninety-six
millions and seventy-five thousand livres
tournois •' . "#. ' *'i '< - ^ . . 96,075,000
An immense sum ! that the city of Paris might save
every year, by the economy of using sunshine instead
of candles.

If it should be said, that people are apt to be obsti-
nately attached to old customs, and that it will be diffi-
cult to induce them to rise before noon, consequently
my discovery can be of little use ; I answer, Nil des-
perandum. I believe all who have common sense, as
soon as they have learnt from this paper that it is day-
light when the sun rises, will contrive to rise with him ;
and, to compel the rest, I would propose the following
regulations ;

First. Let a tax be laid of a louis per window, on
every window that is provided with shutters to keep
out the light of the sun.

MISCELLANEOUS. 231

Second. Let the same salutary operation of police be
made use of, to prevent our burning candles, that in-
clined us last whiter to be more economical in burning
wood ; that is, let guards be placed hi the shops of the
wax and tallow chandlers, and no family be permitted
to be supplied with more than one pound of candles
per week.

Third. Let guards also be posted to stop all the
coaches, &,c. that would pass the streets after sun-set,
except those of physicians, surgeons, and midwives.

Fourth." Every morning, as soon as the sun rises,
let all the bells hi every church be set ringing ; and if
that is not sufficient, let cannon be fired in every street,
to wake the sluggards effectually, and make them open
their eyes to see their true interest.

All the difficulty will be in the first two or three
days ; after which the reformation will be as natural and
easy as the present irregularity; for, ce rfest que le
premier pas qui coute. Oblige a man to rise at four in
the morning, and it is more than probable he will go
willingly to bed at eight in the evening; and, having
had eight hours sleep, he will rise more willingly at four
in the morning following. But this sum of ninety-six
millions and seventy-five thousand livres is not the
whole of what may be saved by my economical project.
You may observe, that I have calculated upon only one
half of the year, and much may be saved hi the other,
though the days are shorter. Besides, the immense
stock of wax and tallow left unconsumed during the
summer, will probably make candles much cheaper for
the ensuing winter, and continue them cheaper as long
as the proposed reformation shall be supported.

For the great benefit of this discovery, thus freely
communicated and bestowed by me on the public, I
demand neither place, pension, exclusive privilege, nor

232 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

any other reward whatever. I expect only to have the
honor of it. And yet I know there are little, envious
minds, who will, as usual, deny me this, and say, that
my invention was known to the ancients, and perhaps
they may bring passages out of the old books in prool
of it. I will not dispute with these people, that the
ancients knew not the sun would rise at certain hours ;
they possibly had, as we have, almanacs that predicted
it; but it does not follow thence, that they knew he
gave light as soon as he rose. This is what I claim as
my discovery. If the ancients knew it, it might have
been long since forgotten ; for it certainly was unknown
to the moderns, at least to the Parisians, which to prove,
I need use but one plain simple argument. They are
as well instructed, judicious, and prudent a people as
exist anywhere in the world, all professing, like myself,
to be lovers of economy ; and, from the many heavy
taxes required from them by the necessities of the
state, have surely an abundant reason to be economical.
I say it is impossible that so sensible a people, under
such circumstances, should have lived so long by the
smoky, unwholesome, and enormously expensive light
of candles, if they had really known, that they might
have had as much pure light of the sun for nothing.
I am, &c. A SUBSCRIBER.

MISCELLANEOUS. 233

THE CRAVEN-STREET GAZETTE.

While the author resided in London he lived for the most part
in the family of Mrs. Stevenson in Craven Street. The following
humorous journal pretends to have been kept during a few days'
absence of that lady from home. — EDITOR.

Saturday, September 22, 1770.

THIS morning Queen Margaret, accompanied by her
first maid of honor, Miss Franklin, set out for Rochester.
Immediately on their departure, the whole street was in
tears — • from a heavy shower of rain. It is whispered,
that the new family administration, which took place on
her Majesty's departure, promises, like all other new
administrations, to govern much better than the old one.

We hear, that the great person (so called from his
enormous size), of a certain family in a certain street, is
grievously affected at the late changes, and could hardly
be comforted this morning, though the new ministry
promised him a roasted shoulder of mutton and potatoes-
for his dinner.

It is said, that the same great person intended to pay
his respects to another great personage this day, at St.
James's, it being coronation-day ; hoping thereby a little
to amuse his grief; but was prevented by an accident,
Queen Margaret, or her maid of honor, having carried
off the key of the drawers, so that the lady of the bed-
chamber could not come at a laced shirt for his High-
ness. Great clamors were made on this occasion
against her Majesty.

Other accounts say, that the shirts were afterwards

VOL. II. 30 T *

234 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

found, though too late, in another place. And some
suspect, that the wanting a shirt from those drawers
was only a ministerial pretence to excuse picking the
locks, that the new administration might have every
thing at command.

We hear that the lady chamberlain of the household
went to market this morning by her own self, gave the
butcher whatever he asked for the mutton, and had no
dispute with the potato-woman, to their great amaze-
ment at the change of times.

It is confidently asserted, that this afternoon, the
weather being wet, the great person a little chilly, and
nobody at home to find fault with the expense of fuel,
he was indulged with a fire in his chamber. It seems
the design is, to make him contented by degrees with
the absence of the Queen.

A project has been under consideration of govern-
ment, to take the opportunity of her Majesty's absence
for doing a thing she was always averse to, namely,
fixing a new lock on the street door, or getting a key
made to the old one ; it being found extremely incon-
venient, that one or other of the great officers of state
should, whenever the maid goes out for a ha'penny
worth of sand, or a pint of porter, be obliged to attend
the door to let her in again. But opinions being
divided, which of the two expedients to adopt, the
project is, for the present, laid aside.

We have good authority to assure our readers, that a
Cabinet Council was held this afternoon at tea ; the
subject of which was a proposal for the reformation of
manners, and a more strict observation of the Lord's
day. The result was a unanimous resolution, that no
meat should be dressed to-morrow; whereby the cook
and the first minister will both be at liberty to go to
church, the one having nothing to do, and the other no

MISCELLANEOUS. 235

vX

roast to rule. It seems the cold shoulder of mutton,
and the apple-pie, were thought sufficient for Sunday's
dinner. All pious people applaud this measure, and it
is thought the new ministry will soon become popular.

We hear that Mr. Wilkes was at a certain house in
Craven Street this day, and inquired after the absent
Queen. His good lady and the children are well.

The report, that Mr. Wilkes, the patriot, made the
above visit, is without foundation, it being his brother,
the courtier.

Sunday, September 23.

It is now found by sad experience, that good reso-
lutions are easier made than executed. Notwithstand-
ing yesterday's solemn order of Council, nobody went
to church to-day. It seems the great person's broad-
built bulk lay so long abed, that the breakfast was not
over till it was too late to dress. At least this is the
excuse. In fine, it seems a vain thing to hope reforma-
tion from the example of our great folks.

The cook and the minister, however, both took
advantage of the order so far, as to save themselves
all trouble, and the clause of cold dinner was en-
forced, though the going to church was dispensed
with ; just as common working folks observe the com-
mandment. The seventh day thou shall rest, they
think a sacred injunction ; but the other six days thou
shalt labor is deemed a mere piece of advice, which
they may practise when they want bread and are out of
credit at the ale-house, and may neglect whenever they
have money in their pockets.

It must, nevertheless, be said, in justice to our court,
that, whatever inclination they had to gaming, no cards
were brought out to-day. Lord and Lady Hewson
walked after dinner to Kensington, to pay their duty to
the Dowager, and Dr. Fatsides made four hundred and

236 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

sixty-nine turns in his dining-room, as the exact dis-
tance of a visit to the lovely Lady Barwell, whom he
did not find at home ; so there was no struggle for and
against a kiss, and he sat down to dream in the easy-
chair, that he had it without any trouble.

Monday, September 24.

We are credibly informed, that the great person
dined this day with the Club at the Cat and Bagpipes
in the City, on cold round of boiled beef. This, it
seems, he was under some necessity of doing (though
he rather dislikes beef), because truly the ministers
were to be all abroad somewhere to dine on hot roast
venison. It is thought, that, if the Queen had been at
home, he would not have been so slighted. And
though he shows outwardly no marks of dissatisfaction,
it is suspected, that he begins to wish for her Majesty's
return.

It is currently reported, that poor Nanny had nothing
for dinner in the kitchen, for herself and puss, but the
scrapings of the bones of Saturday's mutton.

This evening there was high play at Craven Street
House. The great person lost money. It is supposed
the ministers, as is usually supposed of all ministers,
shared the emoluments among them.

Tuesday, September 25.

This morning the good Lord Hutton called at
Craven- Street House, and inquired very respectfully and
affectionately concerning the welfare of the Queen.
He then imparted to the big man a piece of intelligence
important to them both, which he had just received
from Lady Hawkesworth, namely, that their amiable
and excellent companion, Miss Dorothea Blount, had
made a vow to marry absolutely him of the two, whose
wife should first depart this life. It is impossible to

MISCELLANEOUS. 237

express with words the various agitations of mind ap-
pearing in both their faces on this occasion ; vanity at
the preference given them over the rest of mankind ;
affection for their present wives ; fear of losing them ;
hope (if they must lose them) to obtain the proposed
comfort; jealousy of each other, in case both wives
should die together, — all working at the same time,
jumbled their features into inexplicable confusion. They
parted, at length, with professions and outward appear-
ances of ever-during friendship ; but it was shrewdly
suspected, that each of them wished health and long
life to the other's wife ; and that however long either of
these friends might like to live himself, the other would
be very well pleased to survive him.

It is remarked, that the skies have wept every day in
Craven Street the absence of the Queen.

The public may be assured, that this morning a cer-
tain great person was asked very complaisantly by the
mistress of the household, if he would choose to have
the blade-bone of Saturday's mutton, that had been
kept for his dinner to-day, broiled or cold. He answer-
ed gravely, If there is any flesh on it, it may be broiled ;
if not, it may as well be cold. Orders were accordingly
given for broiling it. But when it came to table, there
was indeed so very little flesh, or rather none at all
(puss having dined on it yesterday after Nanny), that,
if our new administration had been as good economists
as they would be thought, the expense of broiling might
well have been saved to the public, and carried to the
sinking fund. It is assured the great person bears all
with infinite patience. But the nation is astonished at
the insolent presumption, that dares treat so much
mildness in so cruel a manner.

A terrible accident had like to have happened this
afternoon at tea. The boiler was set too near the end

238 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

of the little square table. The first ministress was
sitting at one end of the table to administer the tea ;
the great person was about to sit down at the other
end, where the boiler stood. By a sudden motion, the
lady gave the table a tilt. Had it gone over, the great
person must have been scalded ; perhaps to death.
Various are the surmises and observations on this occa-
sion. The godly say, it would have been a just judg-
ment on him for preventing, by his laziness, the family's
going to church last Sunday. The opposition do not
stick to insinuate, that there was a design to scald him,
prevented only by his quick catching the table. The
friends of the ministry give out, that he carelessly
jogged the table himself, and would have been inevita-
bly scalded, had not the ministress saved him. It is
hard for the public to come at the truth in these
cases.

At six o'clock this afternoon, news came by the post,
that her Majesty arrived safely at Rochester on Satur-
day night. The bells immediately rang — for candles
to illuminate the parlour ; the court went into cribbage ;
and the evening concluded with every demonstration
of joy.

It is reported that all the principal officers of state
have received an invitation from the Duchess Dowager
of Rochester, to go down thither on Saturday next.
But it is not yet known whether the great affairs
they have on their hands will permit them to make
this excursion.

We hear, that, from the tune of her Majesty's leav-
ing Craven-Street House to this day, no care is taken
to file the newspapers ; but they lie about in every
room, in every window, and on every chair, just where
the Doctor lays them when he has read them. It i<J
impossible government can long go on in such hands.

MISCELLANEOUS. 239

" TO THE PUBLISHER OF THE CRAVEN-STREET GAZETTE.

« SIR,

" I make no doubt of the truth of what the papers
tell us, that a certain great person has been half-starved
on the blade-bone of a sheep (I cannot call it of mutton,
because none was on it), by a set of the most careless,
blundering, foolish, crafty, and knavish ministers, that
ever got into a house, and pretended to govern a family
and provide a dinner. Alas, for the poor old England
of Craven Street ! If these nefarious wretches continue
in power another week, the nation will be ruined ; un-
done, totally undone, if the Queen does not return, or
(which is better) turn them all out, and appoint me and
my friends to succeed them. I am a great admirer oi
your useful and impartial paper, and therefore request
you will insert this, without fail, from

" Your humble servant,

" INDIGNATION."

« TO THE PUBLISHER OF THE CRAVEN-STREET GAZETTE.

« SIR,

" Your correspondent, * Indignation,1 has made a
fine story in your paper against our excellent Craven
Street ministry, as if they meant to starve his Highness,
giving him only a bare blade-bone for his dinner, while
they riot upon roast venison. The wickedness of wri-
ters in this age is truly amazing. I believe we never
had, since the foundation of our state, a more faithful,
upright, worthy, careful, considerate, incorrupt, discreet,
wise, prudent, and beneficent ministry, than the present.
But if even the angel Gabriel would condescend to
be our minister, and provide our dinners, he could
scarcely escape newspaper defamation from a gang of

240 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

hungry, ever-restless, discontented, and malicious scrib-
blers.

" It is, Sir, a piece of justice you owe our righteous
administration to undeceive the public on this occasion,
by assuring them of the fact, which is, that there was
provided, and actually smoking on the table under his
royal nose at the same instant, as fine a piece of ribs of
beef roasted, as ever knife was put into ; with potatoes,
horse-radish, pickled walnuts, &c. ; which beef his
Highness might have eaten of, if he had pleased so to
do ; and which he forbore to do, merely from a whimsical
opinion (with respect be it spoken), that beef doth not
with him perspire well. This is the truth ; and, if your
boasted impartiality is real, you will not hesitate a mo-
ment to insert this letter in your very next paper.

" I am, though a little angry with you at present,
" Yours, as you behave,

"A HATER or SCANDAL."

Junius and Cinna came to hand too late for this day's
paper, but shall have place in our next

MARRIAGES. None since our last ; but puss begins
to go a courting.

DEATHS. In the back closet and elsewhere, many
poor mice.

STOCKS. Biscuit — very low. Buckwheat and In-
dian meal — both sour. Tea lowering daily — in the
canister.

Wednesday, September 26/A. Postscript. — Those
in the secret of affairs do not scruple to assert roundly,
that the present first ministress proves very notable,
having this day been at market, bought excellent mut-
ton-chops, and apples four a penny, made a very fine
apple-pie with her own hands, and mended two pair of
breeches.

MISCELLANEOUS. 241

A LETTER FROM CHINA.

THIS jeu cFesprit was first published in The Repository for
May, 1788. A correspondent, who was for several years person-
ally and intimately acquainted with Dr. Franklin, writes to me ;
" He was very fond of reading about China, and told me, that
if he were a young man he should like to go to China." In the
form of a pretended narrative of a sailor, he has embodied in the
following letter some of his knowledge derived from books, with
fanciful descriptions of his own. In a few passages his peculiar
manner of thought and style is very apparent. — EDITOR.

Lisbon, May 5, 1784.

SIR,

AGREEABLE to your desire, I have examined the
sailor more particularly, and shall now give you the
circumstances of his story, with all the observations
he made in the country, concerning which you are
so curious. He appears a more intelligent fellow than
seamen in general. He says that he belonged to the
Resolution, an English ship, one of those that made
the last voyage with Captain Cook. That on their
return, being at Macao, he and a comrade of his were
over-persuaded by a Portuguese captain, who spoke
English and Chinese, to desert, in order to go with
him in a brigantine to the northwestern coast of
America, to purchase sea-beaver skins from the savages,
by which they hoped to make fortunes. That accord-
ingly they took a boat belonging to the ship, got ashore
in the night, turned the boat adrift, and were hid by
the Portuguese captain till the Resolution was gone.
That this was in January, 1780, and that in April
following they sailed from Macao, intending to go first
to a place he calls Nooky-Bay, in latitude 50. That

VOL. n. 31 u

242 FRANKLIN'h WRITINGS.

they had twenty-five men, with eight guns and small
arms for their defence, and a quantity of iron ware,
cutlery, with European and Chinese toys, for trade.

That about the beginning of May, in a dark night,
the captain being sick in his cabin, they were surprised
and suddenly boarded by two boats full of armed men,
to the number of forty, who took possession of the
brig, no resistance being made. That these strangers
altered her course, and stood, as he saw by the com-
pass, to the northwest ; that the next day the captain
understood by a Chinese among them, that they were
Curry * Ladrones, or pirates ; that they had been cruis-
ing on the coast of China, and had lost their vessel
on a reef the night before; and it was explained to
the captain, that if he and his people would work the
ship, and fight upon occasion, they should be well
used, and have a share of plunder, or otherwise be
thrown overboard. That all consented, and three days
after they saw land, and coasted it northward; that
they took two Chinese junks, who were sent away
steering northeast, eight men being put into each, and
some of the Chinese taken out. That the brig went
on to the northward for four days after, without taking
any thing ; but running too near the coast in chase of
another Chinese, they stuck fast on a shoal in a falling
tide ; that they hoped to get off by the night flood, but
were mistaken, and the next morning were surrounded
by a great many armed boats and vessels, which the
chased vessel, which got in, had probably occasioned
to come out against them. That at first they beat off
those vessels, but, reinforcements coming, they saw it
impossible to escape, and submitted, and were all
brought on shore and committed to prison.

* Perhaps Cvrea.

MISCELLANEOUS, 243

That a few days after they were taken out and
examined, and, the Portuguese captain making it ap-
pear that he and his people were prisoners to the
Ladrones, they were recommitted, and the Ladrones
all beheaded. That the brig, being got off, was, after
some time, as he understood, by an order from court,
restored to the Portuguese captain, who went away
in her with all his people, except this relator and a
Portuguese lad, who, being both ill of the flux, and
likely to die, were left behind in prison. What became
of the brig afterwards, he never heard. That they
were well attended in their sickness, and soon re-
covered, but were not set at liberty. That the prison
was a very clean, airy place, consisting of several courts
and ranges of building, the whole securely walled and
guarded, and governed with great order. That every
body was obliged to work ; but his work was not hard,
it was weaving rushes upon hoops for the bottom of
chairs, and they had some small pay for them, which,
added to the prison allowance of rice and chong, was
more than a sufficiency ; and he thinks there are no such
comfortable prisons in England, at least among those
he had been acquainted with. That he applied him-
self to learn the Chinese language, and succeeded so
far at last as to understand and make himself under-
stood in common matters. That some of the most
orderly prisoners were allowed to assist the neighbour-
ing country people in time of harvest, under the care
of overseers. That he and his companion were from
time to time made to expect that orders would come
from court for their release; but he supposes they
were quite forgotten. They had written frequently to
the Popish missionaries at Pekin, requesting their so-
licitations, but received no answer; and perhaps the
prison-keeper, who had a profit on their labor, never
sent their letters.

244 FRANKLIN'.S WRITINGS.

That after more than a year's confinement, being
in the country at a harvest, he accidentally cut his
foot very badly, and was left behind at a farmer's house
to be cured ; the farmer undertaking to return him to
prison when recovered. That he got into favor in the
family ; that he taught the farmer's wife to make soap,
which he understood, it being his father's trade. That
he had himself been apprentice to a shoemaker before
he took to the sea; and, finding some leather in the
house, he made himself, with such tools as he could
get or make, a large shoe for his lame foot. That the
farmer admired the shoe much above the Chinese
shoes, and requested a pair for himself. That he ac-
cordingly made shoes for the farmer, his wife, two sons,
and a daughter. That he was obliged first to make
the lasts for all of them; and that it is not true that
the feet of Chinese women are less than those of
English women. That, these shoes being admired,
many inhabitants of the neighbouring village desired
to have of them ; so he was kept constantly at work,
the farmer finding the leather, selling the shoes, and
allowing him some share of the profit, by which he
got about an ounce of silver per week, all money
being weighed there. That the Chinese tan their
leather with oaken chips, saw-dust, and shavings, which
are saved by the carpenters for the farmers, who boil
them, and steep their hides in the warm liquor, so that
it is sooner fit for use. That the farmer's wife began
to get money by selling soap, and they proposed to
obtain his liberty, and keep him in the family, by
giving him their daughter, when a little older, for a
wife, with a piece of land ; and he believes they did
prevail with the jailor, by presents, to connive at his
stay, on pretence of his lameness.

He liked their way of living, except their sometimes

MISCELLANEOUS. 245

eating dog's flesh. Their pork was excellent ; the rice,
dressed various ways, all very good, and the chong
he grew fond of, and learnt to make it. They put
kidney beans hi soak for twenty-four hours, then grind
them in a hand-mill, pouring in water from time to
time to wash the meal from between the stones, which
falls into a tub covered with a coarse cloth that lets
the meal and water pass through, retaining only the
skins of the beans ; that a very small quantity of alum,
or some sort of salt, put into it, makes the meal settle
to the bottom, when they pour off the water. That
it is eaten various ways, by all sorts of people, with
milk, with meat, as thickening in broth, &,c. That
they used also to put a little alum in their river water
when foul, to clear it for use, and by that means made
it as clear as rock water, the dirt all settling. Their
house was near a great river, but he does not re-
member its name. That he lived in this family about
a year, but did not get the daughter, her grandfather
refusing his consent to her marriage with a stranger.

That they have a sort of religion, with priests and
churches, but do not keep Sunday, nor go to church,
being very heathenish. That in every house there is a
little idol, to which they give thanks, make presents,
and show respect in harvest time, but very little at
other times ; and, inquiring of his master why they did
not go to church to pray, as we do in Europe, he
was answered, they paid the priests to pray for them,
that they might stay at home and mind their business ;
and that it would be a folly to pay others for praying,
and then go and do the praying themselves ; and that
the more work they did while the priests prayed, the
better able they were to pay them well for praying.

That they have horses, but not many; the breed
small, but strong; kept chiefly for war, and not used

u*

246 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

in labor, nor to draw carriages. That oxen are used ;
but the chief of their labor is done by men, not only
in the fields, but on the roads, travellers being carried
from town to town in bamboo chairs, by hired chair-
men, throughout the country; and goods also, either
hanging on poles between two, and sometimes four
men, or in wheel-barrows ; they having no coaches,
carts, or waggons, and the roads being paved with flat
stones.

They say that their great father (so they call the
emperor) forbids the keeping of horses, because he
had rather have his country filled with his children
than with brutes; and one horse requires as much
ground to produce him food, as would feed six men ;
yet some great people obtain leave to keep one horse
for pleasure. That the master, having a farm left to
him by a deceased relation, in a distant part of the
country, sold the land he lived on, and went with the
whole family to take possession, and live on the other.
That they embarked in one of the boats that carry sea
fish into the heart of the empire, which are kept fresh
even in hot weather, by being packed in great hampers
with layers of ice and straw, and repacked every two
or three days with fresh ice, taken at ice-houses on
the way. That they had been ten days on their voy-
age, when they arrived at the new farm, going up
always against the stream. That the owner of the
boat, finding him handy and strong in rowing and
working her, and one of the hands falling sick, per-
suaded him to go fifteen days farther, promising him
great pay, and to bring him back to the family. But
that, having unloaded the fish, the Chinese went off
with his boat in the night, leaving him behind, without
paying him. That there is a great deal of cheating in
China, and no remedy. That stealing, robbing, arid

MISCELLANEOUS. 247

house-breaking are punished severely ; but cheating is
free there in every thing, as cheating in horses is among
our gentlemen in England.

That, meeting at that place with a boat bound to-
wards Canton in a canal, he thought it might be a
means of escaping out of that country, if he went in
her; so he shipped himself to work for his passage,
though it was with regret he left for ever the kind
family he had so long lived with. That after twenty-
five days' voyage on the canal, the boat stopping at
a little town, he went ashore, and walked about to
look at it, and buy some tobacco; and in returning
he was stopped, taken up, examined, and sent away,
under a guard, across the country to a mandarin, dis-
tant two days' journey. That here he found the lingo
somewhat different, and could not so well make himself
understood ; that he was kept a month in prison before
the mandarin had leisure to examine him. That, having
given a true account of himself, as well as he could,
the mandarin set him at liberty, but advised him to
wait the departure of some persons for Canton, with
whom he proposed to send him as a shipwrecked
stranger, at the emperor's expense. That in the mean
time he worked in the mandarin's garden, and con-
versed with the common people. He does not recol-
lect the name of the province, but says it was one of
the tea countries ; and that, besides the true tea, they
made a vast deal of counterfeit tea, which they packed
up in boxes, some mixed with good tea, but mostly
unmixed, and sent it away to different sea-ports for
the supply of foreign countries. That he observed
they made ordinary tea of the leaves of sweet potatoes,
which they cut into form by stamps, and had the art
of giving such color and taste as they judged proper.
When he spoke of this practice as a fraud, they said

248 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

there was no harm in it, for strangers liked the false
tea as well, or better, than the true ; and that it was
impossible to load with true tea all the ships that came
for it ; China could not furnish such a quantity ; and,
if the demand went on increasing as it had done some
years past, all the leaves of all the trees in the country
would not be sufficient to answer it. This tea was
sold cheap, as he understood twenty catty of it (a catty
is near our pound) for about an ounce of silver. They
did not drink it themselves, but said it was not un-
wholesome, if drunk moderately.

That after some time he set out in the train of seven
merchants for Canton, with a passport from the man-
darin, going partly by land, but chiefly by water in
canals. That they stopt a week in a part of the
country where a great deal of China ware is made;
that many farmers had little furnaces in some out-house,
where they worked at leisure times, and made, some
nothing but tea-cups, others nothing but saucers, &,c.,
which they sold to country shopkeepers, who collected
quantities for the merchants. The ware is there very
cheap. He could have bought a dozen pretty cups
and saucers for as much silver as is in an English
half-crown.

He says it is not true, that they have large wheel
carriages in China, driven by the wind ; at least he
never saw or heard of any such ; but that the wheel-
barrow porters indeed, when passing some great open
countries, do sometimes, if the wind is fair, spread a
thin cotton sail, supported by a light bamboo mast,
which they stick up on their wheelbarrows, and it
helps them along. That he once saw a fleet of near
three hundred sail of those wheelbarrows, each with
a double wheel. That, when he arrived at Canton, he
did not make himself known to the English there, but

MISCELLANEOUS. 249

got down as soon as he could to Macao, hoping to
meet with his Portuguese captain; but he had never
returned. That he worked there in rigging of vessels,
till he had an opportunity of coming home to Europe ;
and, hearing on his arrival here, from an old comrade
in the packet, that his sweetheart is married, and that
the Resolution and Endeavour got home, he shall de-
cline going to England yet a while, fearing he may
be punished for carrying off the boat ; therefore he has
shipped himself, as I wrote you before, on a voyage
to America. He was between three and four years in
China. This is the substance of what I got from
him, and nearly as he related it. He gave me the
names of some places, but I found them hard to re-
member, and cannot recollect them

VOL. ii. 32

ESSAYS

ON

GENERAL POLITICS, COMMERCE,

AND

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

INTO THE

NATURE AND NECESSITY

OF A

PAPER CURRENCY.

Quid asper
Utile nummus habet ; patriae carisque propinquis

Quantum elargiri deceat.

PERSIUS.

FIRST PRINTED AT PHILADELPHIA IN THE YEAR 1729.

This is one of the author's earliest compositions, it having been written
at the beginning of his twenty-third year. It is indeed the first tract of
a political nature, which is known to have come from his pen, and al-
though it was published anonymously, yet he afterwards avowed the
authorship in his autobiography, where he thus speaks.

" There was a cry among the people for more paper money ; only
fifteen thousand pounds being extant in the province, and that soon to be
sunk. The wealthy inhabitants opposed any addition ; being against all
paper currency, from the apprehension that it would depreciate as it had
done in New England, to the injury of all creditors. We had discussed
this point in our junto, where I was on the side of an addition ; being
persuaded that the first small sum struck in 1723 had done much
good by increasing the trade, employment, and number of inhabitants in
the province ; since I now saw all the old houses inhabited, and many
new ones building; whereas I remembered well when I first walked
about the streets of Philadelphia, (eating my roll,) I saw many of the
houses in Walnut Street, between Second and Front Streets, with bills on
their doors ' To be let ' ; and many likewise in Chestnut Street and other
streets ; which made me think the inhabitants of the city were one after
another deserting it. Our debates possessed me so fully on the subject,

VOL. II. V

254 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

that I wrote and printed an anonymous pamphlet on it, entitled, The
Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency. It was well received by
the common people in general ; but the rich men disliked it, for it in-
creased and strengthened the clamor for more money ; and, they happen-
ing to have no writers among them that were able to answer it, their
opposition slackened, and the point was carried by a majority in the
House. My friends there, who considered I had been of some service,
thought fit to reward me, by employing me in printing the money ; a very
profitable job, and a great help to me. This was another advantage
gained by my being able to write.

" The utility of this currency became, by time and experience, so evi-
dent, that the principles upon which it was founded were never after-
wards much disputed ; so that it grew soon to fifty-five thousand pounds ;
and in 1739 to eighty thousand pounds, trade, building, and inhabitants
all the while increasing. Though I now think there are limits beyond
which the quantity may be hurtful."

This Inquiry bears the marks of the author's characteristic acuteness
and sagacity, but contains some of the fallacies, which were then com-
mon in the colonies on the subject of paper money. Occasionally the
arguments are addressed more to the popular prejudices, than to the good
sense and intelligence of readers, though there is no doubt that Franklin
was sincere in supporting- the doctrines of the advocates of the paper-
money system. He subsequently expressed the same opinions in his
examination before the committee of the House of Commons in 1766.
This essay is curious, as showing his early impressions, and the rudiments
of his thinking upon subjects, which occupied his mind and employed his
pen, to a very considerable extent, in the mature period of his life. —
EDITOR.

THERE is no science, the study of which is more
useful and commendable than the knowledge of the true
interest of one's country ; and perhaps there is no kind
of learning more abstruse and intricate, more difficult to
acquire in any degree of perfection than this, and there-
fore none more generally neglected. Hence it is, that
we every day find men in conversation contending
warmly on some point in politics, which, although it
may nearly concern them both, neither of them under-
stands any more than they do each other.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 255

Thus much by way of apology for this present In-
(juiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Cur-
rency. And if any thing I shall say may be a means
of fixing a subject, that is now the chief concern of my
countrymen, in a clearer light, I shall have the satisfac-
tion of thinking my time and pains well employed.

To proceed, then,

There is a certain proportionate quantity of money
requisite to carry on the trade of a country freely and
currently ; more than ivhich would be of no advantage
in trade, and less, if much less, exceedingly detrimental
to it.

This leads us to the following general considerations.

First. A great want of money, in any trading coun-
try, occasions interest to be at a very high rate. And
here it may be observed, that it is impossible by any
laws to restrain men from giving and receiving exorbi-
tant interest, where money is suitably scarce. For he
that wants money will find out ways to give ten per
cent, when he cannot have it for less, although the law
forbids to take more than six per cent. Now the inter-
est of money being high is prejudicial to a country sev-
eral ways. It makes land bear a low price, because
few men will lay out their money in land, when they
can make a much greater profit by lending it out upon
interest. And much less will men be inclined to ven-
ture their money at sea, when they can, without risk
or hazard, have a great and certain profit by keeping it
at home ; thus trade is discouraged. And if in two
neighbouring countries the traders of one, by reason of a
greater plenty of money, can borrow it to trade with at
a lower rate than the traders of the other, they will
infallibly have the advantage, and get the greatest part
of that trade into their own hands ; for he that trades
with money he hath borrowed at eight or ten per cent,

256 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

cannot hold market with him that borrows his money at
six or four. On the contrary, a plentiful currency will
occasion interest to be low ; and this will be an induce-
ment to many to lay out their money in lands, rather
than put it out to use, by which means land will begin
to rise in value and bear a better price. And at the
same time it will tend to enliven trade exceedingly,
because people will find more profit in employing their
money that way than in usury ; and many that under-
stand business very well, but have not a stock sufficient
of their own, will be encouraged to borrow money to
trade with, when they can have it at a moderate in-
terest.

Secondly. Want of money in a country reduces the
price of that part of its produce which is used in trade ;
because, trade being discouraged by it as above, there is
a much less demand for that produce. And this is
another reason why land in such a case will be low,
especially where the staple commodity of the country is
the immediate produce of the land ; because, that pro-
duce being low, fewer people find an advantage in hus-
bandry, or the improvement of land. On the contrary,
a plentiful currency will occasion the trading produce to
bear a good price ; because, trade being encouraged and
advanced by it, there will be a much greater demand
for that produce ; * which will be a great encouragement

* Some obscurity is thrown over this paragraph by confounding low
price with want of demand, and high price with briskness of demand,
things which often go together, and which are now, as formerly, often
confounded with each other, though they are by no means identical,
one being the cause, the other the effect, respectively ; for the increase
of demand, out of proportion to that of the supply, increases price, and
the reduction of demand, out of proportion to that of supply, reduces
price. This inaccuracy, combined with another, which we shall soon meet
with in this essay, namely, the confounding of circulating medium, or
money, with capital generally ; and also another nearly allied to it,
namely, the confounding of the amount of capital ready to be loaned,

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 257

of husbandry and tillage, and consequently make land
more valuable, for that many people would apply them-
selves to husbandry, who probably might otherwise
have sought some more profitable employment.

As we have already experienced how much the in-
crease of our currency, by what paper money has been
made, has encouraged our trade, particularly to in-
stance only in one article, ship -building, it may not be
amiss to observe under this head, what a great advan-
tage it must be to us as a trading country, that has
workmen and all the materials proper for that business
within itself, to have ship-building as much as possible
advanced ; for every ship, that is built here for the Eng-
lish merchants, gams the province her clear value in
gold and silver, which must otherwise have been sent
home for returns in her stead ; and likewise every ship,
built in and belonging to the province, not only saves
the province her first cost, but all the freight, wages, and
provisions she ever makes or requires as long as she
lasts ; provided care is taken to make this her pay-port,
and that she always takes provisions with her for the
whole voyage, which may easily be done. And how
considerable an article this is yearly in our favor, every
one, the least acquainted with mercantile affairs, must
needs be sensible ; for, if we could not build ourselves,
we must either purchase so many vessels as we want
from other countries, or else hire them to carry our

with that of the circulating medium, led to many of the fallacies, which
were prevalent in Franklin's time in subjects of political economy, and
which have, to this day, not wholly disappeared from similar specula-
tions. The propositions really in question in this part of the essay are,
that briskness of trade promotes production and consequently wealth, and
that plenty, or rather a sufficiency, of circulating medium promotes trade,
and a want of it, oh the other hand, obstructs trade. These propositions
are sufficiently plain, and are indisputable, and they constitute the au-
thor's premises or postulates, but they will not be found to lead to all his
conclusions. — W. PHILLIPS.

VOL. ii. 33 v*

258 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

produce to market, which would be more expensive
than purchasing, and on many other accounts exceed-
ingly to our loss. Now as trade in general will decline
where there is not a plentiful currency, so ship -building
must certainly of consequence decline where trade is
declining.

Thirdly. Want of money in a country discoura-
ges laboring and handicraftsmen (who are the chief
strength and support of a people) from coming to set-
tle in it, and induces many that were settled to leave
the country, and seek entertainment and employment
in other places, where they can be better paid. For
what can be more disheartening to an industrious la-
boring man than this, that, after he hath earned his
bread with the sweat of his brows, he must spend as
much time, and have near as much fatigue in getting
it, as he had to earn if? And nothing makes more
bad paymasters than a general scarcity of money. And
here again is a third reason for land's bearing a low
price in such a country, because land always increas-
es in value in proportion with the increase of the
people settling on it, there being so many more buy-
ers ; and its value will infallibly be diminished, if the
number of its inhabitants diminish. On the contrary,
a plentiful currency will encourage great numbers of
laboring and handicraftsmen to come and settle in the
country, by the same reason that a want of it will
discourage and drive them out.* Now the more in-

* This proposition is true, and yet it tends to leave a wrong impression
on the mind ; for money, like ships, is an instrument of trade, and like
ploughs, is an instrument of production, and the more facilities for trade
and production, and consequently for obtaining wealth, the country afford-
ed, the greater were the inducements to emigrate to it. The quality of
the ships, and ploughs, &c., is as important as the numher. Just so of the
circulating medium ; the soundness of the currency is quite as important
as its abundance. The error left upon the mind by the above language,
and it is a very common one, is, that there is some predominant and

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 259

habitants, the greater demand for land (as is said
above), upon which it must necessarily rise in value,
and bear a better price. The same may be said of
the value of house-rent, which will be advanced for
the same reasons ; and, by the increase of trade and
riches, people will be enabled to pay greater rents.
Now, the value of house-rent rising, and interest be-
coming low, many, that in a scarcity of money prac-
tised usury, will probably be more inclined to build-
ing ; which will likewise sensibly enliven business in
any place ; it being an advantage not only to brick-
makers, bricklayers, masons, carpenters, joiners, gla-
ziers, and several other trades immediately employed
by building, but likewise to farmers, brewers, bakers,
tailors, shoemakers, shopkeepers, and, in short, to ev-
ery one that they lay their money out with.

Fourthly. Want of money in such a country as ours,
occasions a greater consumption of English and Europe-
an goods, in proportion to the number of the people, than
there would otherwise be. Because merchants and tra-
ders, by whom abundance of artificers and laboring
men are employed, finding their other affairs require
what money they can get into their hands, oblige
those who work for them to take one half or perhaps
two-thirds goods in pay. By this means a greater
quantity of goods are disposed of, and to a greater
value ; because working-men and their families are
thereby induced to be more profuse and extravagant
in fine apparel and the like, than they would be if
they were obliged to pay ready money for such things
after they had earned and received it, or if such goods

almost magical effect belonging to a circulating medium, as distinguished
from other instruments and facilities of production and trade, and their
result, wealth ; whereas the quantity of even a sound currency is not
decisive of the prosperity of a country, as might be seen in Franklin's
time in some of the South American provinces. — W. PHILLIPS.

260 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

were not imposed upon them, of which they can make
no other use. For such people cannot send the goods
they are paid with to a foreign market, without losing
considerably by having them sold for less than they
stand them in here ; neither can they easily dispose of
them at home, because their neighbours are generally
supplied in the same manner. But how unreasonable
would it be, if some of those very men who have
been a means of thus forcing people into unnecessary
expense, should be the first and most earnest in ac-
cusing them of pride and prodigality. Now, though
this extraordinary consumption of foreign commodities
may be a profit to particular men, yet the country in
general grows poorer by it apace. On the contrary, as
a plentiful currency will occasion a less consumption of
European goods, in proportion to the number of the peo-
ple, so it will be a means of making the balance of our
trade more equal than it now is, if it does not give it
in our favor; because our own produce will be en-
couraged at the same time. And it is to be observ-
ed, that, though less foreign commodities are consumed
in proportion to the number of people, yet this will
be no disadvantage to the merchant, because the num-
ber of people increasing, will occasion an increasing
demand of more foreign goods in the whole.

Thus we have seen some of the many heavy dis-
advantages a country (especially such a country as
ours) must labor under, when it has not a sufficient
stock of running cash to manage its trade currently.
And we have likewise seen some of the advantages
which accrue from having money sufficient, or a plen-
tiful currency.

The foregoing paragraphs being well considered, we
shall naturally be led to draw the following conclusions
with regard to what persons will probably be for or

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 261

against emitting a large additional sum of paper bills
in this province.

1. Since men will always be powerfully influenced
in their opinions and actions by what appears to be
their particular interest, therefore all those, who, want-
ing courage to venture in trade, now practise lending
money on security for exorbitant interest, which, in a
scarcity of money will be done, notwithstanding the
law, I say all such will probably be against a large
addition to our present stock of paper money ; be-
cause a plentiful currency will lower interest, and make
it common to lend on less security.

2. All those who are possessors of large sums of
money, and are disposed to purchase land, which is
attended with a great and sure advantage in a grow-
ing country as this is ; I say, the interest of all such
men will incline them to oppose a large addition to
our money. Because their wealth is now continually
increasing by the large interest they receive, which
will enable them (if they can keep land from rising)
to purchase more some time hence than they can at
present ; and in the mean time all trade being discour-
aged, not only those who borrow of them, but the
common people in general will be impoverished, and
consequently obliged to sell more land for less money
than they will do at present. And yet, after such men
are possessed of as much land as they can purchase,
it will then be their interest to have money made plen-
tiful, because that will immediately make land rise in
value in their hands. Now it ought not to be won-
dered at, if people from the knowledge of a man's in-
terest do sometimes make a true guess at his designs ;
for interest, they say, will not lie.

3. Lawyers, and others concerned in court business,
will probably many of them be against a plentiful

262 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

currency ; because people in that case will have less oc-
casion to run in debt, and consequently less occasion to
go to law and sue one another for their debts. Though
I know some even among these gentlemen, that regard
the public good before their own apparent private in-
terest.

4. All those who are any way dependents on such
persons as are above mentioned, whether as holding of-
fices, as tenants, or as debtors, must at least appear to
be against a large addition; because, if they do not,
they must sensibly feel their present interest hurt. And
besides these, there are, doubtless, many well-meaning
gentlemen and others, who, without any immediate pri-
vate interest of their own in view, are against making
such an addition, through an opinion they may have of
the honesty and sound judgment of some of their friends
that oppose it (perhaps for the ends aforesaid), without
having given it any thorough consideration themselves.
And thus it is no wonder if there is a powerful party on
that side.

On the other hand, those who are lovers of trade, and
delight to see manufactures encouraged, will be for
having a large addition to our currency. For they very
well know, that people will have little heart to advance
money in trade, when what they can get is scarce suffi-
cient to purchase necessaries, and supply their families
with provisions. Much less will they lay it out in ad-
vancing new manufactures ; nor is it possible new man-
ufactures should turn to any account, where there is not
money to pay the workmen, who are discouraged by
being paid in goods, because it is a great disadvantage
to them.

Again. Those, who are truly for the proprietor's in-
terest (and have no separate views of their own that are
predominant), will be heartily for a large addition.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 263

Because, as I have shown above, plenty of money will
for several reasons make land rise in value exceedingly.
And I appeal to those immediately concerned for the
proprietor in the sale of his lands, whether land has not
risen very much since the first emission of what paper
currency we now have, and even by its means. Now
we all know the proprietary has great quantities to sell.

And since a plentiful currency will be so great a
cause of advancing this province in trade and riches,
and increasing the number of its people ; which, though
it will not sensibly lessen the inhabitants of Great Brit-
ain, will occasion a much greater vent and demand for
their commodities here ; and allowing that the crown is
the more powerful for its subjects increasing in wealth
and number, I cannot think it the interest of England to
oppose us in making as great a sum of paper money
here, as we, who are the best judges of our own neces-
sities, find convenient. And if I were not sensible that
the gentlemen of trade in England, to whom we have
already parted with our silver and gold, are misinformed
of our circumstances, and therefore endeavour to have
our currency stinted to wrhat it now is, I should think
the government at home had some reasons for discour-
aging and impoverishing this province, which we are
not acquainted with.

It remains now that we inquire, whether a large ad-
dition to our paper currency will not make it sink in
value very much. And here it will be requisite that we
first form just notions of the nature and value of money
in general.

As Providence has so ordered it, that not only differ-
ent countries, but even different parts of the same coun-
try, have their peculiar most suitable productions ; and
likewise that different men have geniuses adapted to
a variety of different arts and manufactures; therefore

264 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

commerce, or the exchange of one commodity or manu-
facture for another, is highly convenient and beneficial
to mankind. As for instance, A may be skilful in the
art of making cloth, and B understand the raising of
corn. A wants corn, and B cloth ; upon which they
make an exchange with each other for as much as each
has occasion for, to the mutual advantage and satisfac-
tion of both.

But as it would be very tedious, if there were no
other way of general dealing, but by an immediate ex-
change of commodities ; because a man that had corn
to dispose of, and wanted cloth for it, might perhaps,
in his search for a chapman to deal with, meet with
twenty people that had clbth to dispose of, but wanted
no corn; and with twenty others that wanted his corn,
but had no cloth to suit him with ; to remedy such
inconveniences, and facilitate exchange, men have in-
vented MONEY, properly called a medium of exchange,
because through or by its means labor is exchanged
for labor, or one commodity for another. And what-
ever particular thing men have agreed to make this
medium of, whether gold, silver, copper, or tobacco, it
is, to those who possess it (if they want any thing),
that very thing which they want, because it will imme-
diately procure it for them. It is cloth to him that
wants cloth, and corn to those that want corn ; and so
of all other necessaries, it is whatsoever it will procure.
Thus he who had corn to dispose of, and wanted to
purchase cloth with it, might sell his corn, for its value in
this general medium, to one who wanted com but had
no cloth ; and with this medium he might purchase
cloth of him that wanted no corn, but perhaps some
other thing, as iron it may be, which this medium will
immediately procure, and so he may be said to have ex-
changed his cloth for iron ; and thus the general

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 265

change is soon performed, to the satisfaction of all par-
ties, with abundance of facility.

For many ages, those parts of the wcrld which are
engaged in commerce, have fixed upon gold and silver
as the chief and most proper materials for this medium ;
they being in themselves valuable metals for their fine-
ness, beauty, and scarcity. By these, particularly by
silver, it has been usual to value all things else. But as
silver itself is of no certain permanent value, being
worth more or less according to its scarcity or plenty,
therefore it seems requisite to fix upon something else,
more proper to be made a measure of values, and this T
take to be labor.*

By labor may the value of silver be measured as well
as other things. As, suppose one man employed to
raise corn, while another is digging and refining silver ;
at the year's end, or at any other period of time, the
complete produce of corn, and that of silver, are the
natural price of each other; and if one be twenty
bushels, and the other twenty ounces, then an ounce of
that silver is worth the labor of raising a bushel of that
corn. Now if by the discovery of some nearer, more
easy or plentiful mines, a man may get forty ounces of
silver as easily as formerly he did twenty, and the same
labor is still required to raise twenty bushels of corn,
then two ounces of silver will be worth no more than
the same labor of raising one bushel of corn, and that
bushel of corn will be as cheap at two ounces, as it was
before at one, cceteris paribus.

Thus the riches of a country are to be valued by the
quantity of labor its inhabitants are able to purchase,
and not by the quantity of silver and gold they possess ;
which will purchase more or less labor, and therefore is

* Franklin states this doctrine in 1729, precisely as Adam Smith does
forty-six years afterwards in The Wealth of Natio". is. — W. PHILLIPS.

VOL. ii. 34 w

266 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

more or less valuable, as is said before, according to its
scarcity or plenty. As those metals have grown much
more plentiful in Europe since the discovery of Ameri-
ca,* so they have sunk in value exceedingly ; for, to
instance in England, formerly one penny of silver was
worth a day's labor, but now it is hardly worth the sixth
part of a day's labor ; because not less than sixpence
will purchase the labor of a man for a day in any part
of that kingdom ; which is wholly to be attributed to
the much greater plenty of money now in England than
formerly. And yet perhaps England is in effect no
richer now than at that time ; because as much labor
might be purchased, or work got done of almost any
kind, for one hundred pounds then, as will now require
or is now worth six hundred pounds.

In the next place let us consider the nature of banks
emitting bills of credit, as they are at this tune used in
Hamburgh, Amsterdam, London, and Venice.

Those places being seats of vast trade, and the pay-
ment of great sums being for that reason frequent, bills
of credit are found very convenient in business ; be-
cause a great sum is more easily counted in them,
lighter in carriage, concealed in less room, and therefore
safer in travelling or laying up, and on many other ac-
counts they are very much valued. The banks are the
general cashiers of all gentlemen, merchants, and great
traders in and about those cities ; there they deposit
their money, and may take out bills to the value, for
which they can be certain to have money again at

* This passage shows, that the theory, as to the effect of the South
American mines upon the rate of money prices and the reduction of
the value of the precious metals, so elaborately set forth and reasoned
out by Adam Smith, was quite a familiar notion when he was but six
years old ; the correctness of which, however, to the extent laid down by
Franklin in this place, and afterwards by Smith, has of late years been
gravely questioned by very respectable writers. — W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 267

the bank at any time. This gives the bills a credit ; so
that in England they are never less valuable than
money, and in Venice and Amsterdam they are gene-
rally worth more. And the bankers, always reserving
money in hand to answer more than the common run
of demands (and some people constantly putting in
while others are taking out), are able besides to lend
large sums, on good security, to the government or oth-
ers, for a reasonable interest, by which they are paid
for their care and trouble ; and the money, which other-
wise would have lain dead in their hands, is made to
circulate again thereby among the people. And thus
the running cash of the nation is, as it were, doubled ;
for all great payments being made in bills, money hi
lower trade becomes much more plentiful. And this is
an exceeding great advantage to a trading country, that
is not overstocked with gold and silver.*

As those, who take bills out of the banks in Europe,
put in money for security ; so here, and in some of the
neighbouring provinces, we engage our land. Which of
these methods will most effectually secure the bills from
actually sinking in value, comes next to be considered.

Trade in general being nothing else but the exchange
of labor for labor, the value of all things is, as I have
said before, most justly measured by labor. Now sup-

* This is a clear and just view of the effects and utility of banks of
deposit. But the application, which Franklin is about to make of it to
land banks, will not be acquiesced in at this day. Every body knows,
that certainty as to time of payment of bills, that pass as a circulating
medium, is no less important than the certainty that they will be eventu-
ally paid. The convertibility of the fund pledged for the redemption of
the bills is as material a circumstance as its sufficiency and permanency
of value. Land, and immovable property generally, is less convertible
than movable property, for it cannot be removed from its place to seek a
market ; this renders this kind of property peculiarly unfit to constitute a
fund or pledge for the redemption of bills, that circulate as money. —
W PHILLIPS.

268 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

pose I put my money into a bank, and take out a bill for
the value ; if this bill at the time of my receiving it,
would purchase me the labor of one hundred men for
twenty days, but some time after will only purchase
the labor of the same number of men for fifteen days,
it is plain the bill has sunk in value one fourth part.
Now, silver and gold being of no permanent value, and
as this bill is founded on money, and therefore to be
esteemed as such, it may be that the occasion of this
fall is the increasing plenty of gold and silver, by which
money is one fourth part less valuable than before, and
therefore one fourth more is given of it for the same
quantity of labor ; and, if land is not become more plen-
tiful by some proportionate, decrease of the people, one
fourth part more of money is given for the same quanti-
ty of land ; whereby it appears, that it would have been
more profitable to me to have laid that money out in
land which I put into the bank, than to place it there
and take a bill for it. And it is certain that the value of
money has been continually sinking in England for sev-
eral ages past, because it has been continually increasing
in quantity. But, if bills could be taken out of a bank
in Europe on a land security, it is probable the value of
such bills would be more certain and steady, because
the number of inhabitants continues to be near the same
in those countries from age to age.

For, as bills issued upon money security are money,
so bills issued upon land, are in effect coined land.

Therefore, (to apply the above to our own circum-
stances) if land in this province was falling, or any way
likely to fall, it would behove the legislature most care-
fully to contrive how to prevent the bills issued upon
land from falling with it. But, as our people increase
exceedingly, and will be further increased, as I have
before shown, by the help of a large addition to our

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 269

currency, and as land in consequence is continually
rising, so, in case no bills are emitted but what are upon
land security, the money-acts in every part punctually
enforced and executed, the payments of principal and
interest being duly and strictly required, and the princi-
pal bond fide sunk according to law, it is absolutely im-
possible such bills should ever sink below their first
value, or below the value of the land on which they are
founded. In short, there is so little danger of their
sinking, that they would certainly rise as the land rises,
if they were not emitted in a proper manner for prer
venting it. That is, by providing in the act, that pay-
ment may be made, either in those bills, or in any other
bills made current by any act of the legislature of this
province ; and that the interest, as it is received, may
be again emitted in discharge of public debts ; whereby
circulating, it returns again into the hands of the bor-
rowers, and becomes part of their future payments ;
and thus, as it is likely there will not be any difficulty for
want of bills to pay the office, they are hereby kept
from rising above their first value. For else, supposing
there should be emitted upon mortgaged land its full
present value in bills, as in the banks in Europe the
full value of the money deposited is given out in bills ;
and suppctsing the office would take nothing but the
same sum in those bills hi discharge of the land, as, in
the banks aforesaid, the same sum in their bills must be
brought in, in order to receive out the money ; in such
case the bills would most surely rise in value as the land
rises ; as certainly as the bank bills founded on money
would fall, if that money was falling. Thus, if I were to
mortgage to a loan-office, or bank, a parcel of land now
valued at one hundred pounds in silver, and receive for
it the like sum in bills, to be paid in again at the expira-
tion of a certain term of years, before which my land,

w *

270 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

rising in value, becomes worth one hundred and fifty
pounds in silver ; it is plain, that if I have not these bills
in possession, and the office will take nothing but these
bills, or else what it is now become worth in silver, in
discharge of my land ; I say it appears plain, that those
bills will now be worth one hundred and fifty pounds in
silver to the possessor ; and if I can purchase them for
less, in order to redeem my land, I shall by so much be
a gainer.

I need not say any thing to convince the judicious that
our bills have not yet sunk, though there is and has
been some difference between them and silver; be-
cause it is evident, that that difference is occasioned by
the scarcity of the latter, which is now become a mer-
chandise, rising and falling, like other commodities, as
there is a greater or less demand for it, or as it is more
or less plenty.

Yet farther, in order to make a true estimate, of the
value of money, we must distinguish between money as
it is bullion, which is merchandise, and as by being
coined it is made a currency. For its value as a mer-
chandise, and its value as a currency, are two distinct
things ; and each may possibly rise and fall in some de-
gree independent of the other. Thus, if the quantity of
bullion increases in a country, it will proportionably de-
crease in value ; but if at the same time the quantity of
current coin should decrease, (supposing payments may
not be made in bullion) what coin there is will rise in
value as a currency ; that is, people will give more labor
in manufactures for a certain sum of ready money.

In the same manner must we consider a paper cur-
rency founded on land ; as it is land, and as it is a cur-
rency.

Money as bullion, or as land, is valuable by so much
labor as it costs to procure that bullion or land.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 271

Money, as a currency, has an additional value by so
much time and labor as it saves in the exchange of com-
modities.

If, as a currency, it saves one fourth part of the time
and labor of a country ; it has, on that account, one
fourth added to its original value.

When there is no money in a country, all commerce
must be by exchange.* Now, if it takes one fourth
part of the time and labor of a country, to exchange or
get their commodities exchanged ; then, in computing
their value, that labor of exchanging must be added to
the labor of manufacturing those commodities. But if
that time or labor is saved by introducing money suffi-
cient, then the additional value on account of the labor
of exchanging may be abated, and things sold for only
the value of the labor in making them ; because the
people may now in the same tune make one fourth
more in quantity of manufactures than they could be-
fore.

From these considerations it may be gathered, that
in all the degrees between having no money in a coun-
try, and money sufficient for the trade, it will rise and
fall in value as a currency, in proportion to the decrease
or increase of its quantity. And if there may be at
some time more than enough, the overplus will have no
eifect towards making the currency, as a currency, of
less value than when there was but enough ; because
such overplus will not be used in trade, but be some
other way disposed of.

If we inquire, how much per cent interest ought to be
required upon the loan of these bills, we must consider

* All commerce is by exchange, or rather is exchange, whether a trade
involves money or not. The kind of trade intended by the author is
in technical as well as in common language known by the name of barter.
— W. PHILLIPS.

272 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

what is the natural standard of usury. And this ap-
pears to be, where the security is undoubted, at least
the rent of so much land as the money lent will buy.
For it cannot be expected, that any man will lend his
money for less than it would fetch him in as rent if he
laid it out in land, which is the most secure property in
the world. But if the security is casual, then a kind of
insurance must be interwoven with the simple natural
interest, which may advance the usury very consciona-
bly to any height below the principal itself. Now,
among us, if the value of land is twenty years' pur-
chase, five per cent is the just rate of interest for money
lent on undoubted security. Yet, if money grows
scarce in a country, it becomes more difficult for people
to make punctual payments of what they borrow,
money being hard to be raised ; likewise, trade being
discouraged and business impeded for want of a cur-
rency, abundance of people must be in declining cir-
cumstances, and by these means security is more pre-
carious than where money is plenty. On such ac-
counts it is no wonder if people ask a greater interest
for their money than the natural interest ; and what is
above is to be looked upon as a kind of premium for
the insurance of those uncertainties, as they are greater
or less. Thus we always see, that where money is
scarce, interest is high, and low where it is plenty.*

* Here is the error mentioned in a previous note ; the author confounds
circulating medium with loanable capital. Thus, by the common phrase
scarcity of money, we always mean scarcity of money or capital to be
loaned, which is quite a different thing from insufficiency of the quantity
of the circulating medium for the purposes of trade. The two may be
contemporaneous, but they are different things. It may readily be imag-
ined that trade, and production, and investments generally, may be so
profitable, that people would prefer to invest or employ their capital them-
selves, rather than loan it to others to be invested or employed. This
state of things has no necessary connexion with the sufficiency of the
quantity of circulating medium. Money in this sense may be plenty,
when in the other it is scarce. This is a state of things, which does in
fact often happen. — W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 273

Now it is certainly the advantage of a country to make
interest as low as possible, as I have already shown ;
and this can be done no other way than by making
money plentiful. And since, in emitting paper money
among us, the office has the best of security, the titles
to the land being all skilfully and strictly examined and
ascertained ; and as it is only permitting the people by
law to coin their own land, which costs the government
nothing, the interest being more than enough to pay
the charges of printing, officers' fees, &,c., I cannot see
any good reason why four per cent to the loan-office
should not be thought fully sufficient. As a low inter-
est may incline more to take money out, it will become
more plentiful in trade ; and this may bring down the
common usury, in which security is more dubious, to
the pitch it is determined at by law.

If it should be objected, that emitting it at so low an
interest, and on such easy terms, will occasion more to be
taken out than the trade of the country really requires ;
it may be answered, that, as has already been shown,
there can never be so much of it emitted as to make it
fall below the land it is founded on ; because no man in
his senses will mortgage his estate for what is of no
more value to him than that he has mortgaged, espe-
cially if the possession of what he receives is more pre-
carious than of what he mortgages, as that of paper
money is when compared to land.* And if it should

* This passage is obscure, a fault with which Franklin's writings are
rarely chargeable. It is so far from being true that no man in his senses
will mortgage his land for what is of no more value to him than that
which he mortgages, that it is the moflt common practice to mortgage
lands and personal property for what is not of half the value of either.
The lender often demands security exceeding the value loaned. Perhaps
the meaning is, that the money must be of more convenience or use to the
borrower than the land mortgaged for it, or he would not borrow ; and
that it could not be of such convenience and use to him if an excess

VOL. ii. 35

274 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

ever become so plenty by indiscreet persons continuing
to take out a large overplus, above what is necessary in
trade, so as to make people imagine it would become
by that means of less value than their mortgaged lands,
they would immediately of course begin to pay it in again
to the office to redeem their land, and continue to do
so till there was no more left in trade than was abso-
lutely necessary.* And thus the proportion would find
itself (though there were a million too much in the of-
fice to be let out), without giving any one the trouble of
calculation.

It may, perhaps, be objected to what I have written
concerning the advantages of a large addition to our
currency, that, if the people of this province increase,
and husbandry is more followed, we shall overstock the
markets with our produce of flour, $*c.f To this it

had been issued, whereby its value and utility would be diminished. —
W. PHILLIPS.

* But there was another view of the case presented by the opposers of
paper currency, which Franklin omits. If a man has mortgaged his land
for a hundred pounds, and invested the money in the purchase of other
land, and two years afterwards, when the money has depreciated in value
fifty per cent, sells half of the land he purchased for a hundred pounds
and pays off his debt, though the land may not have risen at all in the
mean time, he makes a very good operation, at the expense of those
through whose hands the money has been passing in the mean time.
This was the operation of the paper-money system, to which the op-
posers of that system objected. — W. PHILLIPS.

f The author passes this objection with a very slight consideration, and
on the whole rather disingenuously and like a partisan, as he and every
other man in the province were, at the time, on one side or the other of
the question. He had immediately before said, that, in case of excess,
the surplus would be returned, and of course there could not be a lasting
excess if this was the case. But here he supposes there may be a sur-
plus until the increase of business shall absorb it, and that such increase
will be sufficient for the purpose. Now the first supposition is palpably
not well founded, in regard to a money redeemable at some future day,
as was the provincial paper money generally. As to the second supposi-
tion, that any quantity of such paper that can be issued, will be used and
eventually needed, there are abundant examples to the contrary. —
W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 275

may be answered, that we can never have too many
people (nor too much money.) For, when one branch
of trade or business is overstocked with hands, there
are the more to spare to be employed in another. So,
if raising wheat proves dull, more may (if there is
money to support and carry on new manufactures) pro-
ceed to the raising and manufacturing of hemp, silk,
iron, and many other things the country is very capable
of, for which we only want people to work, and money
to pay them with.

Upon the whole it may be observed, that it is the
highest interest of a trading country in general to make
money plentiful ; and that it can be a disadvantage to
none that have honest designs. It cannot hurt even
the usurers, though it should sink what they receive as
interest ; because they will be proportionably more se-
cure hi what they lend ; or they will have an opportu-
nity of employing their money to greater advantage, to
themselves as well as to the country. Neither can it
hurt those merchants, who have great sums outstanding
in debts in the country, and seem on that account to
have the most plausible reason to fear it ; to wit, be-
cause a large addition being made to our currency will
increase the demand of our exporting produce, and by
that means raise the price of it, so that they will not be
able to purchase so much bread or flour with one hun-
dred pounds when they shall receive it after such an
addition, as they now can, and may if there is no addi-
tion. I say it cannot hurt even such, because they will
get in their debts just in exact proportion so much the
easier and sooner as the money becomes plentier ; and
therefore, considering the interest and trouble saved,
they will not be losers ; because it only sinks in value
as a currency, proportionally as it becomes more plenty.
It cannot hurt the interest of Great Britain, as has been

276 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

shown ; and it will greatly advance the interest of the
proprietor. It will be an advantage to every industrious
tradesman, &c., because his business will be carried on
more freely, and trade be universally enlivened by it.
And as more business in all manufactures will be done,
by so much as the labor and time spent in exchange is
saved, the country in general will grow so much the
richer.

It is nothing to the purpose to object the wretched
fall of the bills in New England and South Carolina,
unless it might be made evident that their currency
was emitted with the same prudence, and on such
good security, as ours is ; and it certainly was not.

As this essay is wrote and published in haste, and
the subject in itself intricate, I hope I shall be cen-
sured with candor, if, for want of time carefully to re-
vise what I have written, in some places I should ap-
pear to have expressed myself too obscurely, and in
others am liable to objections I did not foresee. I
sincerely desire to be acquainted with the truth, and
on that account shall think myself obliged to any one,
who will take the pains to show me, or the public,
where I am mistaken in my conclusions. And as
we all know there are among us several gentlemen of
acute parts and profound learning, who are very much
against any addition to our money, it were to be
wished that they would favor the country with their
sentiments on this head in print ; which, supported
with truth and good reasoning, may probably be very
convincing. And this is to be desired the rather be-
cause many people, knowing the abilities of those
gentlemen to manage a good cause, are apt to con-
strue their silence in this, as an argument of a bad
one. Had any thing of that kind ever yet appeared,
perhaps I should not have given the public this

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 277

trouble. But, as those ingenious gentlemen have not
yet (and I doubt never will) think it worth their con-
cern to enlighten the minds of their erring country-
men in this particular, I think it would be highly com-
mendable in every one of us, more fully to bend our
minds to the study of what is the true interest of Penn-
sylvania ; whereby we may be enabled, not only to
reason pertinently with one another; but, if occasion
requires, to transmit home such clear representations, as
must inevitably convince bur superiors of the reasona-
bleness and integrity of our designs.*

Philadelphia, April 3, 1729.

* Soon after this pamphlet was written, the measure proposed in it was
adopted by the Assembly of Pennsylvania; and subsequently another
bill for a similar object was passed, the principal features of which were
published by Governor Pownall. They were understood to have been
communicated to him by Franklin, with other remarks on paper money.
The proceedings of the Assembly on the subject are described in the
extract below.

" As the paper-money act made and passed in Pennsylvania, in 1739,
was the completest of the kind, containing all the improvements which
experience had from time to time suggested, in the execution of preceding
acts ; an account of that act will best explain and recommend the meas-
ure contained in the following proposal.

" The sum of the notes, by that act directed to be printed, was eighty
thousand pounds proclamation money. This money was to be emitted to
the several borrowers, from a loan-office established for that purpose.

" Five persons were nominated trustees of the loan-office, under whose
c#re and direction, the bills or notes were to be printed and emitted.

" To suit the bills for a common currency, they were of small and
various denominations, from twenty shillings downwards to one shilling.

" Various precautions were taken, to prevent counterfeits, by peculiari-
ties in the paper, character, manner of printing, signing, numbering, &c.

" The trustees took an oath, and gave security for the due and faithful
execution of their office.

" They were to lend out the bills on real security of at least double the
value, for a term of sixteen years, to be repaid in yearly quotas or instal-
ments, with interest. Thus one sixteenth part of the principal was yearly
paid back into the office, which made the payment easy to the borrower.
The interest was applied to public services, the principal, during the first
ten years, let out again to fresh borrowers.

" The new borrowers, from year to year, were to have the money only

VOL. II. X

278 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

ON GOVERNMENT. — No. I.*

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, APRIL I, 1736.

GOVERNMENT is aptly compared to architecture; if
the superstructure is too heavy for the foundation, the
building totters, though assisted by outward props of
art. But leaving it to everybody to mould the simili-
tude according to his particular fancy, I shall only
observe, that the people have made the most conside-
rable part of the legislature in every free state ; which
has been more or less so, in proportion to the share
they have had in the administration of affairs. The
English constitution is fixed on the strongest basis ; we

for the remaining part of the term of sixteen years, repaying, by fewer
and, of course, proportionably larger instalments, and during the last six
years of the sixteen, the sums paid in were not to be remitted, but the
notes burnt and destroyed ; so that, at the end of the sixteen years, the
whole might be called in and burnt, and the accounts completely settled.

" The trustees were taken from all the different counties of the prov-
ince, their residence in different parts giving them better opportunities of
being acquainted with the value and circumstances of estates offered in
mortgage.

" They were to continue but four years in office ; were to account an-
nually to committees of Assembly ; and, at the expiration of that term,
they were to deliver up all moneys and securities in their hands, to their
successors, before their bonds and securities could be discharged.

" Lest a few wealthy persons should engross the money, which was
intended for more general benefit, no one person, whatever security he
might offer, could borrow more than one hundred pounds.

" Thus, numbers of poor new settlers were accommodated and assist
ed with money to carry on their settlements, to be repaid in easy portions
yearly, as the yearly produce of their lands should enable them." —
POWNALL'S Administration of the Colonies, 4th edit pp. 234 - 236.
— EDITOR.

* What proof there is, that the two essays on Government were written
by Franklin, except that they appeared in his Gazette, I have no means of
determining. The internal evidence does not appear very strong. They
ore included in Duane's edition. — EDITOR.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 279

choose whomsoever we please for our representatives,
and thus we have all the advantages of a democracy,
without any of its inconveniences.

Popular governments have not been framed without
the wisest reasons. It seemed highly fitting, that the
conduct of magistrates, created by and for the good of
the whole, should be made liable to the inspection and
animadversion of the whole. Besides, there could not
be a more potent counterpoise to the designs of am-
bitious men, than a multitude that hated and feared
ambition. Moreover, the power they possessed, though
great collectively, yet, being distributed among a vast
number, the share of each individual was too incon-
siderable to lay him under any temptations of turning
it to a wrong use. Again, a body of people thus
circumstanced cannot be supposed to judge amiss on
any essential points; for, if they decide in favor of
themselves, which is extremely natural, their decision
is just, inasmuch, as whatever contributes to their
benefit is a general benefit, and advances the real
public good. Hence we have an easy solution of the
sophism, so often proposed by the abettors of tyranny,
who tell us, that, when differences arise between a
prince and his subjects, the latter are incapable of being
judges of the controversy, for that would be setting up
judge and party in the same person.

Some foreigners, have had a truer idea of our con-
stitution. We read in the Memoirs of the late arch-
bishop of Cambray, Fenelon, the celebrated author
of Telemachus, a conversation which he had with
the Pretender, (son of James the Second, of England.)
"If ever you come to the crown of England," says the
bishop, " you will be a happy prince ; with an un-
limited power to do good, and only restrained from
doing evil." A blunt Briton, perhaps, would have

280 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

said, in plain English, " You '11 be at liberty to do as
much good as you please, but, by G — , you shall
do us no hurt." The bishop sweetened the pill; for
such it would appear in its simple form, to a mind
fraught with notions of arbitrary power, and educated
among a people, who, with the utmost simplicity, boast
of their slavery.

What can be more ridiculous than to hear them
frequently object to the English gentlemen that travel
in their country, " What is your king ? Commend
me to our grand monarch, who can do whatever he
pleases. " * But, begging pardon of these facetious
gentlemen, whom it is not my intention to disturb, in
their many notions of government, I shall go on to
examine what were the sentiments of the ancient Ro-
mans on this head.

We find that their dictator, a magistrate never created
but in cases of great extremity, vested with power as
absolute during his office (which never exceeded six
months) as the greatest kings were never possessed of;
this great ruler was liable to be called to an account
by any of the tribunes of the people,! whose persons
were at the same time rendered sacred by the most
solemn laws.

This is evident proof, that the Romans were of
opinion, that the people could not in any sense divest
themselves of the supreme authority, by conferring the
most extensive power they possibly could imagine, on
one or more persons acting as magistrates.

This appears still more evident, in remarking that
the people sat as umpire of the differences which had

* Qu'est ce que votre roi ? Parlez-moi de notre grand monarque,
morbleu ! qui pent faire tout ce qu'il veut.

f Si antiquus animus plebi Romans esset, (says one of the tribunes,)
audaciter se laturum fuisse de abrogando Q. Fabii [dictatoris] impcrio.
— T. Liv. lib. xxii. cap. 25.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 281

arisen between the dictator and senate, in the case of
young Fabius.*

The great deference, which Cicero paid to the
judgment of the Roman people, appears by those in-
imitable orations, of which they were the sole judges
and auditors. That great orator had a just opinion
of their understanding. Nothing gave him a more
sensible pleasure than their approbation. But the
Roman populace were more learned than ours, more
virtuous perhaps; but their sense of discernment was
not better than ours. However, the judgment of a
whole people, especially of a free people, is looked upon
to be infallible ; so that it has become a common prov-
erb, that the voice of God is the voice of the people,
Vox Dei est populi vox. And this is universally true,
while they remain in their proper sphere, unbiased by
faction, undeluded by the tricks of designing men.

Thank God ! we are in the full enjoyment of all
these privileges. But can we be taught to prize them
too much ? or how can we prize them equal to their
value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that
they are not a gift bestowed upon us by other men,
but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and
nature 1

Since they are our right, let us be vigilant to pre-
serve them uninfringed, and free from encroachments.
If animosities arise, and we should be obliged to resort
to party, let each of us range himself on the side which
unfurls the ensigns of public good. Faction will then
vanish, which, if not timely suppressed, may overturn
the balance, the palladium of liberty, and crush us
under its rums.

* Tribunes plebis appello, (says an illustrious senator to the dictator,)
et provoco ad populum, eumque tibi, fugienti senatus judicium, judicem
fero. — T. Liv. lib. viii. cap. 33.

VOL. ii. 36 x*

282 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

The design of this paper is to assert the common
lights of mankind, by endeavouring to illustrate eternal
truths, that cannot be shaken even with the foundations
of the world.

I may take another opportunity to show, how a
government, founded on these principles, rises into the
most beautiful structure, with all the graces of sym-
metry and proportion, as much different from that
raised on arbitrary power, as Roman architecture from
a Gothic building.

ON GOVERNMENT. — No. II.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, APRIL 8, 1736.

AN ancient sage of the law * says, " The King can
do no wrong ; for, if he doeth wrong, he is not the
King." f And in another place, " When the King doth
justice, he is God's vicar; but when he doth unjustly,
he is the agent of the Devil." J The politeness of the
later times has given a softer turn to the expression. It
is now said, The King can do no wrong, but his minis-
ters may. In allusion to this, the Parliament of 1741
declared they made war against the King for the
King's service. But his Majesty affirmed, that such a
distinction was absurd ; though, by the way, his own
creed contained a greater absurdity, for he believed he
had an authority from God to oppress the subjects,
whom by the same authority he was obliged to cherish
and defend. Aristotle calls all princes tyrants, from the

* Bracton, De Legibus et Consuetudinibus JlnglitB ; an author of great
weight, contemporary with Henry the Third.

f Rex non facit injuriam, quia, si facit injuriam, non est rex.

t Dum facit justitiam, vicarius est Regis ffiterni ; minister autem Diaboli,
dum decline t ad injuriam.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 283

moment they set up an interest different from that of
their subjects ; and this is the only definition he gives
us of tyranny. Our own countryman, before cited, and
the sagacious Greek, both agree on this point, that a
governor, who acts contrary to the ends of government,
loses the title bestowed on him at his institution. It
would be highly improper to give the same name to
things of different qualities, or that produce different
effects. Matter, while it communicates heat, is gene-
rally called fire, but when the flames are extinguished,
the appellation is changed. Sometimes indeed the
same sound serves to express things of a contrary na-
ture ; but that only denotes a defect, or poverty, in the
language.

A wicked prince imagines, that the crown receives a
new lustre from absolute power, whereas every step he
takes to obtain it is a forfeiture of the crown.

His conduct is as foolish as it is detestable ; he aims
at glory and power, and treads the path that leads to
dishonor and contempt ; he is a plague to his country,
and deceives himself.

During the inglorious reigns of the Stuarts (except a
part of Queen Anne's), it was a perpetual struggle be-
tween them and the people"; those endeavouring to
subvert, and these bravely opposing the subverters of
liberty. What were the consequences ? One lost his
life on the scaffold, another was banished. The memo-
ry of all of them stinks in the nostrils of every true
lover of his country ; and their history stains with in-
delible blots the English annals.

The reign of Queen Elizabeth furnishes a beautiful
contrast. All her views centred in one object, which
was the public good. She made it her study to gain
the love of her subjects, not by flattery or little sooth-
ing arts, but by rendering them substantial favors. It

284 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

was far from her policy to encroach en their privileges ;
she augmented and secured them.

And it is remarked to her eternal honor, that the acts
presented to her for her royal approbation (forty or fifty
of a session of Parliament) were signed without exam-
ining any farther than the titles. This wise and good
Queen only reigned for her people, and knew that it
was absurd to imagine they would promote any thing
contrary to their own interests, which she so studiously
endeavoured to advance.* On the other hand, when
this Queen asked money of the Parliament, they fre-
quently gave her more than she demanded, and never
inquired how it was disposed of, except for form's sake,
being fully convinced she would not employ it but for
the general welfare. Happy princess, happy people !
What harmony, what mutual confidence ! Seconded
by the hearts and purses of her subjects, she crushed
the exorbitant power of Spain, which threatened de-
struction to England, and chains to all Europe. That
monarchy has ever since pined under the stroke, so
that now, when we send a man-of-war or two to the
West Indies, it puts her into such a panic fright, that, if
the galleons can steal home, she sings Te Deum as for a
victory.

This is a true picture of government ; its reverse is
tyranny.

* This notion of the infallible perception by the people of their true in-
terest, and their unerring pursuit of it, was very prevalent in the provin-
ces, and, for a time, in the States after the establishment of American
independence. A striking instance of it is mentioned by Mr. Justice
Story, in his Eulogy on Chief Justice Marshall, who, during the earlier
part of his life, did not dream that the voice of the people could be other
than the voice of God. — W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 285

V

ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND THE PRESS. *

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, NOVEMBER, 1737.

FREEDOM of speech is a principal pillar of a free
government; when this support is taken away, the
constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is
erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies
derive their strength and vigor from a popular examina-
tion into the action of the magistrates ; this privilege in
all ages has been, and always will be abused. The
best of men could not escape the censure and envy
of the times they lived in. Yet this evil is not so
great as it may appear at first sight. A magistrate,
who sincerely aims at the good of society, will always
have the inclinations of a great majority on his side,
and an impartial posterity will not fail to render him
justice.

Those abuses of the freedom of speech are the
excesses of liberty. They ought to be repressed ;
but to whom dare we commit the care of doing it?
An evil magistrate intrusted with power to punish for
words, would be armed with a weapon the most de-
structive and terrible. Under pretence of pruning off
the exuberant branches, he would be apt to destroy the
tree.

It is certain, that he who robs another of his moral
reputation more richly merits a gibbet, than if he had
plundered him of his purse on the highway. Augustus
Caesar, under the specious pretext of preserving the

* This essay, in regard to its genuineness, may fairly be considered in
the same light as those preceding it, on Government. Though written
with ability, and probably expressing the sentiments of Franklin, yet the
characteristics of the style are not such as to make it evident, on that
ground alone, that the performance came from his pen. It is proper to
state, however, that Mr. Duane has included it in his edition, and thua
(riven it the sanction of his judgment. — EDITOR.

286 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

character of the Romans from defamation, introduced
the law whereby libelling was involved in the penalties
of treason against the state This law established his
tyranny; and, for one mischief which it prevented, ten
thousand evils, horrible and afflicting, sprung up in its
place. Thenceforward every person's life and fortune
depended on the vile breath of informers. The con-
struction of words being arbitrary, and left to the decis-
ion of the judges, no man could write or open his
mouth without being in danger of forfeiting his head.

One was put to death for inserting in his History the
praises of Brutus ; another, for styling Cassius the last
of the Romans. Caligula valued himself for being a
notable dancer ; and to deny, that he excelled in that
manly accomplishment, was high treason. This empe-
ror raised his horse, the name of which was Incitatus, to
the dignity of consul ; and, though history is silent, I do
not question but it was a capital crime to show the
least contempt for that high officer of state ! Sup-
pose, then, any one had called the prime minister a
stupid animal; the emperor's council might argue, that
the malice of the libel was the more aggravated by its
being true, and consequently more likely to excite the
family of this illustrious magistrate to a breach of the
peace, or to acts of revenge. Such a prosecution
would to us appear ridiculous ; yet, if we may rely
upon tradition, there have been formerly proconsuls in
America, though of more malicious dispositions, hardly
superior in understanding to the consul Incitatus, and
who would have thought themselves libelled to be
called by their proper names.

Nero piqued himself on his fine voice and skill in
music ; no doubt a laudable ambition ! He performed
in public, and carried the prize of excellence ; it was
afterwards resolved by all the judges as good law, that
wnulfl msiniiafa the least doubt, of Nero's

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 287

preeminence in the noble art of fiddling, ought to be
deemed a traitor to the state.

By the help of inferences, and inuendoes, treasons
multiplied in a prodigious manner. Grief was treason ;
a lady of noble birth was put to death for bewailing the
death of her murdered son ; silence was declared an overt
act, to prove the treasonable purposes of the heart ; looks
were construed into treason ; a serene, open aspect was
an evidence, that the person was pleased with the ca-
lamities that befell the emperor ; a severe, thoughtful
countenance was urged against the man that wore it, as
a proof of his plotting against the state ; dreams were
often made capital offences. A new species of inform-
ers went about Rome, insinuating themselves into all
companies to fish out their dreams, wnich the holy
priests (0 nefarious wickedness !) interpreted into high
treason. The Romans were so terrified by this strange
method of juridical and penal process, that, far from
discovering their dreams, they durst not own that they
slept. In this terrible situation, when every one had so
much cause to fear, even fear itself was made a crime.
Caligula, when he put his brother to death, gave it as a
reason to the senate, that the youth was afraid of being
murdered. To be eminent in any virtue, either civil or
military, was the greatest crime a man could be guilty
of. 0 virtutes, certissimum exitium.

These were some of the effects of the Roman law
against libelling. Those of the British kings, that aimed
at despotic power or the oppression of the subject,
continually encouraged prosecutions for words.

Henry the Seventh, a prince mighty in politics, pro-
cured that act to be passed, whereby the jurisdiction of
the Star-chamber was confirmed and extended. After-
wards Empson and Dudley, two voracious dogs of
prey, under the protection of this high court, exercised
the most merciless acts of oppression. The subjects

FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

were terrified from uttering their griefs, while they saw
the thunder of the Star-chamber pointed at their heads.
This caution, however, could not prevent several
dangerous tumults and insurrections ; for, when the
tongues of the people are restrained, they commonly
discharge their resentments by a more dangerous
organ, and break out into open acts of violence.

During the reign of Henry the Eighth, a high-spirited
monarch, every light expression, which happened to
displease him, was construed by his supple judges into
a libel, and sometimes extended to high treason. When
Queen Mary, of cruel memory, ascended the throne, the
Parliament, in order to raise a fence against the violent
prosecutions for words, which had rendered the lives,
liberties, and properties of all men precarious, and per-
haps dreading the furious, persecuting spirit of this prin-
cess, passed an act whereby it was declared, " That if
a libeller doth go so high, as to libel against king or
queen, by denunciation, the judges shall lay no greater
fine on him than one hundred pounds, with two months'
imprisonment, and no corporal punishment. Neither
was this sentence to be passed on him, except the ac-
cusation was fully proved by two witnesses, who were
to produce a certificate of their good demeanor for the
credit of their report."

This act was confirmed by another, hi the seventh
year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; only the penalties
were heightened to two hundred pounds and three
months' imprisonment. Notwithstanding, she rarely
punished invectives, though the malice of the Papists
was indefatigable in blackening the brightest characters
with the most impudent falsehood. She was often heard
to applaud that rescript of Theodosius;* "If any person

* "Si quis Imperatori malediceret, non statim injuria censetur et eo no-
mine punitur ; sed distinguitur, an ex levitate processerit, et sic contem-

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 289

speak ill of the Emperor, through a foolish rashness and
inadvertency, it is to be despised ; if out of madness, it
deserves pity ; if from malice and aversion, it calls for
mercy."

Her successor, King James the First, was a prince of a
quite different genius and disposition. He used to say,
that, while he had the power of making judges and
bishops, he could have what law and gospel he pleased.
Accordingly, he filled those places with such as pro-
stituted their professions to his notions of prerogative.
Among this number, and I hope it is no discredit to the
profession of the law, its great oracle, Sir Edward
Coke, appears. The Star-chamber, which, in the time
of Elizabeth, had gained a good repute, became an in-
tolerable grievance in the reign of this learned monarch.

But it did not arrive at its meridian altitude till
Charles the First began to wield the sceptre. As he
had formed a design to lay aside parliaments, and
subvert the popular part of the constitution, he very well
knew, that the form of government could not be altered
without laying a restraint on freedom of speech and
the liberty of the press ; therefore he issued his royal
mandate, under the great seal of England, whereby he
commanded his subjects, under pain of his displeasure,
not to prescribe to him any time for parliaments. Lord
Clarendon, upon this occasion, is pleased to write,
"That all men took themselves to be prohibited,
under the penalty of censure (the censure of the Star-

nitur, an ex insania, et miseratione digna censetur, an ex injuria, et sic
remittenda declarator."

Note. A rescript was an answer delivered by the emperor, when con
suited on some difficult question or point in law. The judges were wholly
to be directed by it, whenever such a case came before them. For " The
voice of the king gives vigor to the law," ( Voluntas regis habet vigorem
legis,) is a fundamental principle in the civil law. The rescript, mentioned
above, was not only delivered by Theodosius, but by two other emperors,
Honorius and Arcadius.

VOL. II. 37 Y

290 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

chamber, which few men cared to incur,) so much as
to speak of parliaments, or so much as to mention,
that parliaments were again to be called."

The king's ministers, to let the nation see they were
absolutely determined to suppress all freedom of speech,
caused a prosecution to be carried on by the attorney-
general against three members of the House of Com-
mons, for words spoken in that House, Anno 1628.
The members pleaded to the information, that expres-
sions hi Parliament ought only to be examined and
punished there. This notwithstanding, they were all
three condemned as disturbers of the state. One of
these gentlemen, Sir John Eliott, was fined two thou-
sand pounds, and sentenced to lie in prison till it was
paid. His lady was denied admittance to him, even
during his sickness ; consequently his punishment com-
prehended an additional sentence of divorce. This
patriot, having endured many years' imprisonment, sunk
under the oppression, and died in prison. This was
such a wound to the authority and rights of Parliament,
that, even after the restoration, the judgment wras re-
versed by Parliament.

That Englishmen of all ranks might be effectually
intimidated from publishing their thoughts on any sub-
ject, except on the side of the court, his Majesty's min-
isters caused an information, for several libels, to be
exhibited in the Star-chamber against Messrs. Prynne,
Burton, and Bastwick. They were each of them fined
five thousand pounds, and adjudged to lose their ears
on the pillory, to be branded on the cheeks with hot
irons, and to suffer perpetual imprisonment ! Thus
these three gentlemen, each of worth and quality in
their several professions, viz. divinity, law, and physic,
were, for no other offence, than writing on controvert-
ed points of church-government, exposed on public

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 291

scaffolds, and stigmatized and mutilated as common
signal rogues, or the most ordinary malefactors.

Such corporal punishments, inflicted with all the
circumstances of cruelty and infamy, bound down all
other gentlemen, under a servile fear of the like treat-
ment ; so that for several years no one durst publicly
speak or write in defence of the liberties of the peo-
ple, which the king's ministers, his privy council, and
his judges had trampled under their feet. The spirit
of the administration looked hideous and dreadful ; the
hate and resentment, which the people conceived against
it, for a long time lay smothered in their breasts, where
those passions festered and grew venomous, and at last
discharged themselves by an armeu and vindictive
hand.

King Charles the Second aimed at the subversion of
the government, but concealed his designs under a
deep hypocrisy ; a method which his predecessor, in
the beginning of his reign, scorned to make use of.
The father, who affected a high and rigid gravity, dis-
countenanced all barefaced immorality. The son, of a
gay, luxurious disposition, openly encouraged it. Thus,
their inclinations being different, the restraint laid on
some authors, and the encouragement given to others,
were managed after a different manner.

In this reign a licenser was appointed for the stage
and the press ; no plays were encouraged but what had
a tendency to debase the minds of the people. The
original design of comedy was perverted ; it appeared
in all the shocking circumstances of immodest double
entendre, obscene description, and lewd representation.
Religion was sneered out of countenance, and public
spirit ridiculed as an awkward, old-fashioned virtue ; the
fine gentleman of the comedy, though embroidered all
over with wit, was a consummate debauchee ; and a
fine lady, though set off with a brilliant imagination, was

292 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

an impudent coquette. Satire, which in the hands of
Horace, Juvenal, and Boileau, was pointed with a gener-
ous resentment against vice, now became the declared
foe of virtue and innocence. As the city of London, in
all ages, as well as the time we are speaking of, was
remarkable for its opposition to arbitrary power, the
poets levelled all their artillery against the metropolis, in
order to bring the citizens into contempt. An alder-
man was never introduced on the theatre, but under
the complicated character of a sneaking, canting hypo-
crite, a miser and a cuckold ; while the court wits,
with impunity, libelled the most valuable part of the
nation. Other writers, of a different stamp, with great
learning and gravity, endeavoured to prove to the Eng-
lish people, that slavery was jure divino. Thus the
stage and the press, under the direction of a licenser,
became battering engines against religion, virtue, and
liberty. Those who had courage enough to write in
their defence were stigmatized as schismatics, and
punished as disturbers of the government.

But when the embargo on wit was taken off, Sir
Richard Steele and Mr. Addison soon rescued the stage
from the load of impurity it labored under ; with an
inimitable address, they strongly recommended to our
imitation the most amiable, rational, manly characters ;
and this with so much success, that I cannot suppose
there is any reader to-day conversant in the writings of
those gentlemen, that can taste with any tolerable relish
the comedies of the once admired Shadwell. Vice was
obliged to retire and give place to virtue. This will
always be the consequence when truth has fair play.
Falsehood only dreads the attack, and cries out for
auxiliaries. Truth never fears the encounter; she
scorns the aid of the secular arm, and triumphs by her
natural strength.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 293

But to resume the description of the reign of Charles
the Second. The doctrine of servitude was chiefly
managed by Sir Roger L'Estrange. He had great ad-
vantages in the argument, being licenser for the press,
and might have carried all before him, without contra-
diction, if writings on the other side of the question had
not been printed by stealth. The authors, whenever
found, were prosecuted as seditious libellers. On all
these occasions, the king's counsel, particularly Sawyer
and Finch, appeared most abjectly obsequious to ac-
complish the ends of the court.

During this blessed management, the King had enter-
ed into a secret league with France, to render himself
absolute, and enslave his subjects. This fact was dis-
covered to the world by Dr. Jonathan Swift, to whom
Sir William Temple had entrusted the publication of his
works.

Sidney, the sworn foe of tyranny, was a gentleman
of noble family, of sublime understanding, and exalted
courage. The ministry were resolved to remove so
great an obstacle out of the way of their designs. He
was prosecuted for high treason. The overt act charg-
ed in the indictment, was a libel found in his private
study. Mr. Finch, the king's own solicitor-general,
urged, with great vehemency, to this effect; "That
the imagining the death of the king is treason, even
while that imagination remains concealed in the mind ;
though the law cannot punish such secret treasonable
thoughts, till it arrives at the knowledge of them by
some overt act. That the matter of the libel composed
by Sidney was an imagining how to compass the death
of King Charles the Second ; and the writing of it was
an overt act of the treason ; for, that to write was to act ;
scribere est agere" It seems that the king's counsel in
this reign had not received the same direction as Queen

Y*

294 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Elizabeth had given hers ; she told them they were to
look upon themselves as retained, not so much pro dom-
ind regind, as pro domind veritate, — for the power of
the Queen, as for the power of truth.

Mr. Sidney made a strong and legal defence. He
insisted that all the words in the book contained no
more than general speculations on the principles of gov-
ernment, free for any man to write down ; especially
since the same are written in the Parliament rolls and
the statute laws.

He argued on the injustice of applying by inuendoes,
general assertions concerning principles of government,
as overt acts, to prove the writer was compassing the
death of the king ; for then no man could write of
things done even by our ancestors, in defence of the
constitution and freedom of England, without exposing
himself to capital danger.

He denied that scribere est agere, but allowed that
writing and publishing is to act, scribere et publicare est
agere ; and therefore he urged, that, as his book had
never been published nor imparted to any person, it
could not be an overt act, within the statutes of trea-
sons, even admitting that it contained treasonable posi-
tions ; that, on the contrary, it was a covert fact, locked
up in his private study, as much concealed from the
knowledge of any man, as if it were locked up in the
•author's mind. This was the substance of Mr. Sid-
ney's defence. But neither law, nor reason, nor elo-
quence, nor innocence, ever availed where Jeffreys sat
as judge. Without troubling himself with any part of
the defence, he declared in a rage, that Sidney's known
principles were a sufficient proof of his intention to
compass the death of the king.

A packed jury, therefore, found him guilty of high
treason. Great applications were made for his pardon.
He was executed as o traitor.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 295

This case is a pregnant instance of the danger that
attends a law for punishing words, and of the little se-
curity the most valuable men have for their lives, in that
society where a judge, by remote inferences and distant
inuendoes, may construe the most innocent expressions
into capital crimes. Sidney, the British Brutus, the
warm, the steady friend of liberty, who, from a diffusive
love to mankind, left them that invaluable legacy, his
immortal " Discourses on Government," was for these
very Discourses murdered by the hands of lawless power.

After the revolution of 1688, when law and justice
were again restored, the attainder of this great man was
reversed by Parliament.

" Being in Holland," says bishop Burnet, " the Prin-
cess of Orange, afterwards Queen Mary, asked me what
had sharpened the king her father so much against Mr.
Jurieu ? I told her he had writ with great indecency
of Mary, Queen of Scots, which cast reflections on them
that were descended from her. The Princess said,
Jurieu was to support the cause he defended, and ta
expose those that persecuted it, in the best way he
could ; and if what he said of Mary, Queen of Scots,
was true, he was not to be blamed who made that use
of it; and she added, that, if princes would do ill
things, they must expect that the world will take
revenge on their memories, since they cannot reach
their persons. That was but a small suffering, far short
of what others suffered at their hands."

In the former part of this paper it was endeavoured
to prove by historical facts, the fatal dangers that neces-
sarily attend a restraint of freedom of speech and the
liberty of the press; upon which the following reflec-
tion naturally occurs, viz. that whoever attempts to
suppress either of these our natural rights, ought to be
regarded as an enemy to liberty and the constitution.

296 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

An inconveniency is always to be suffered, when it
cannot be removed without introducing a worse.

I proceed, in the next place, to inquire into the nature
of the English laws in relation to libelling. To acquire
a just idea of them, the knowledge of history is neces-
sary, and the genius and disposition of the prince is to
be considered, in whose tune they are introduced and
put in practice.

To infuse into the minds of the people an ill opinion
of a just administration is a crime, that deserves no
indulgence; but to expose the evil designs or weak
management of a magistrate is the duty of every mem-
ber of society. Yet King James the First thought it an
unpardonable presumption in the subject to pry into the
arcana imperil, the secrets of kings. He imagined, that
the people ought to believe the authority of the govern-
ment infallible, and that their submission should be
implicit. It may therefore be reasonably presumed, that
the judgment of the Star-chamber concerning libels
was influenced by this monarch's notions of govern-
ment. No law could be better framed to prevent
people from publishing their thoughts on the adminis-
tration, than that which makes no distinction, whether
a libel be true or false. It is not pretended that any
such decision is to be found in our books, before this
reign. That is not at all to be wondered at; King
James was the first of the British monarchs, that laid
claim to a divine right.

It was a refined piece of policy in Augustus CaBsar,
when he proposed a law to the senate, whereby in-
vectives against private men were to be punished as
treason. The pill was finely gilded and easily swal-
lowed ; but the Romans soon found that the preserva-
tion of their characters was only a pretext ; to preserve
inviolable the sacred name of Caesar was the real

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 297

design of the law. They quickly discovered the
intended consequence ; if it be treason to libel a private
person, it cannot be less than blasphemy to speak ill
of the emperor.

Perhaps it may not appear a too refined conjecture,
that the Star-chamber acted on the same views with
Augustus, when they gave that decision which made it
criminal to publish truth of a private person as well as
a magistrate. I am the more inclined to this conjec-
ture from a passage in Lord Chief Justice Richardson's
speech, which I find in the trial in the Star-chamber
against Mr. Prynne, who was prosecuted there for a
libel. " If subjects have an ill prince, " says the judge,
" marry, what is the remedy ? They must pray to God
to forgive him. Mr. Prynne saith there were three
worthy Romans, that conspired to murder JYero. This
is most horrible. "

Tremendous wickedness indeed, my Lord Chief Jus-
tice ! Where slept the thunder, when these three
detestable Romans, unawed by the sacred majesty of
the diadem, with hands sacrilegious and accursed, took
away the precious life of that imperial wolf, that true
epitome of the Lord's anointed, who had murdered his
own mother, who had put to death Seneca and
Burrhus, his two best friends and benefactors; who
was drenched in the blood of mankind, and wished and
endeavoured to extirpate the human race ? I think my
Lord Chief Justice has clearly explained the true intent
and meaning of the Star-chamber doctrine; it centres
in the most abjectly passive obedience.

The punishment for writing truth, is pillory, loss of
ears, branding the face with hot irons, fine, and im-
prisonment, at the discretion of the court. Nay, the pun-
ishment is to be heightened in proportion to the truth of
the facts contained in the libel. But, if this monstrous

VOL. ii. 38

298 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

doctrine could have been swallowed down by that
worthy jury, who were on the trial of the seven bishops,
prosecuted for a libel in the reign of James the Second,
the liberties of Britain, in all human probability, had
been lost, and slavery established in the three kingdoms.

This was a cause of the greatest expectation and
importance that ever came before the judges in West-
minster-hall.

The bishops had petitioned the king, that he would
be graciously pleased not to insist upon their reading
in the church his Majesty's declaration for liberty of
conscience, because it was founded on a dispensing
power, declared illegal in Parliament; and they said,
that they could not, in prudence, honor, or conscience,
so far make themselves parties to it. In the information
exhibited by the attorney-general, the bishops were
charged with writing and publishing a false, malicious,
and seditious libel (under pretence of a petition), in
diminution of the king's prerogative, and contempt of
his government.

Sawyer and Finch were among the bishops' counsel ;
the former had been attorney, the latter solicitor-general.
In these stations they had served the court only too
well. They were turned out because they refused to
support the dispensing power. Powis and Williams,
who stood in their places, had great advantages over
them, by reflecting on the precedents and proceedings,
while those were of the king's counsel. " What was
good law for Sidney and others, ought to be law for the
bishops ; God forbid, that in a court of justice any such
distinction should be made."

Williams took very indecent liberties with the pre-
lates, who were obliged to appear in court; he re-
proached them with acting repugnant to their doctrine
of passive obedience; he reminded them of their

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 299

preaching against himself, and stirring up their clergy
to libel him in their sermons. For Williams had been
for many years a bold pleader in all causes against the
court. He had been Speaker in two successive par-
liaments, and a zealous promoter of the bill of exclusion.
Jeffreys had fined him ten thousand pounds for having
licensed, in the preceding reign, by virtue of an order
of the House of Commons, the printing of Dangerfield's
Narrative, which charged the Duke of York with con-
spiracies of a black complexion. This gentleman had
no principles, was guided by his own interests, and
so wheeled about to the court. The king's counsel
having produced their evidences as to the publication of
the petition, the question then to be debated was,
whether it contained libellous matter or not.

It was argued in substance for the bishops, that the
matter could not be libellous, because it was true ; Sir
Robert Sawyer makes use of the words false and libel-
lous, as synonymous terms, through the whole course of
his argument ; and so does Mr. Finch ; accordingly they
proceeded to show by the votes and journals of the
Parliament, which were brought from the Tower to the
court, that the kings of England, in no age, had any
power to dispense with or set aside the laws of the
land; and, consequently, the bishops' petition, which
denied that his Majesty had any dispensing power,
could not be false, nor libellous, nor in contempt or
diminution of the king's prerogative, as no such power
was ever annexed to it. This was the foundation laid
down through the whole course of the debate, and
which guided and governed the verdict.

It was strongly urged in behalf of the king, that the
only point to be looked into was, whether the libel be
reflecting or scandalous, and not whether it be true or
false ; that the bishops had injured and affronted the

300 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

king by presuming to prescribe to him their opinions
in matters of government; that, under pretence of
delivering a petition, they come and tell his Majesty
he has commanded an illegal thing; that, by such a
proceeding, they threw dirt in the king's face, and so
were libellers with a witness.

Previous to the opinions of the judges, it will be
necessary to give the reader a short sketch of their
characters. Wright was before on the bench, and made
chief justice, as a proper tool to support the dispensing
power. Rapin, mentioning this trial, calls Holloway a
creature of the court ; but that excellent historian was
mistaken in this particular. Powell was a judge of
obstinate integrity ; his obstinacy gained him immortal
honor. Allibone was a professed Papist, and had not
taken the tests ; consequently he was no judge, and his
opinion of no authority. Wright, in his charge, called
the petition a libel, and declared that any thing which
disturbs the government is within the case de libellis
famosis, (the Star-chamber doctrine.) Holloway told
the jury, that the end and intention of every action is to
be considered ; and that, as the bishops had no ill inten-
tion in delivering their petition, it could not be deemed
malicious or libellous. Powell declared, that falsehood
and malice were two essential qualities of a libel, which
the prosecutor is obliged to prove. Allibone replied
upon Powell, that we are not to measure things from
any truth they have in themselves, but from the aspect
they have on the government ; for that every tittle of a
libel may be true, and ye t be a libel still.

The compass of this paper would not admit me to
quote the opinion of the judges at length ; but I have
endeavoured, with the strictest regard to truth, to give
the substance and effect of them as I read them.

It has been generally said, that the judges on this

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 301

trial were equally divided in their opinions; but we
shall find a majority on the bench in favor of the
bishops, when we consider, that the cause, as to Alli-
bone, was beyond the jurisdiction of the court (coram
non judice.)

Here, then, is a late authority, which sets aside,
destroys, and annuls the doctrine of the Star-chamber,
reported by Sir Edward Coke, in his case de libellis
famosis.

Agreeable to this late impartial decision is the civil
law concerning libels. It is there said, that the calum-
ny is criminal only when it is false, Calumniari est falsa
crimina dicere ; and not criminal when it is true, (vera
crimina dicere ;) and therefore a writing, that insinuates
a falsehood, and does not directly assert it, cannot come
under the denomination of a libel, (JVon libellus famosus
quoad accusationem, quia non constat directis assertioni-
bus, in quibus venit verum aut falsum, quod omnino requirit
libellus famosus.) In those cases where the design to
injure does not evidently appear from the nature of the
words, the intention is not to be presumed ; it is incum-
bent on the plaintiff to prove the malice ; (Jlnimus inju-
riandi non pr&sumitur, et incumbit injuriato eum probare.)

These resolutions of the Roman lawyers bear so great
a conformity with the sentiments of Powell and Hollo-
way, that it seems they had them in view, when they
gave their opinions. Sir Robert Sawyer makes several
glances at them in his argument; but, throwing that
supposition out of the question, natural equity, on which
the civil law is founded, (the principle of passive
obedience always excepted,) would have directed any
impartial man of common understanding to the same
decision.

In civil actions, an advocate should never appear but
when he is persuaded the merits of the cause lie on

VOL. II. Z

302 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

the side of his client. In criminal actions, it often
happens that the defendant in strict justice deserves
punishment; yet a counsel may oppose it when a
magistrate cannot come at the offender, without mak-
ing a breach in the barriers of liberty, and opening
a flood-gate to arbitrary power. But, when the defen-
dant is innocent, and unjustly prosecuted, his counsel
may, nay ought to take all advantages, and use every
stratagem, that skill, art, and learning can furnish him
with. This last was the case of Zenger, at New York,
as appears by the printed trial and the verdict of the
jury. It was a popular cause. The liberty of the
press in that province depended on it. On such oc-
casions the dry rules of strict pleading are never ob-
served. The counsel for the defendant sometimes ar-
gues from the known principles of law ; then raises doubts
and difficulties, to confound his antagonist ; now applies
himself to the affections; and chiefly endeavours to
raise the passions. Zenger's defence is not to be con-
sidered in all those different lights ; yet a gentleman of
Barbadoes assures us, that it was published as a
solemn argument in the Laws, and therefore writes a
very elaborate confutation of it.

I propose to consider some of his objections, as far
as they interfere with the freedom of speech and the
liberty of the press, contended for in this paper.

This author begun his remarks by giving us a speci-
men of Mr. Hamilton's method of reasoning. It seems
the attorney-general on the first objected, that a nega-
tive could not be proved; to which the counsel for
Zenger replied, that there are many exceptions to that
general rule ; and instanced when a man is charged
with killing another ; if he be innocent, he may prove
the man, said to be killed, to be still alive. The re-
marker will not allow this to be a good proof of the

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 303

negative, for, says he, " This is no more than one in-
stance of one affirmative being destroyed by an-
other, that infers a negative of the first." It cost me
some time to find out the meaning of this superlative
nonsense; and I think I have at last discovered it.
What he understands by the first affirmative, is the
instance of the man's being charged with killing
another ; the second affirmative is the man's being
alive; which certainly infers, that the man was not
killed; which is undoubtedly a negative of the first.
But the remarker of Barbadoes blunders strangely.
Mr. Hamilton's words are clear. He says, the party
accused is on the negative, viz. that he did not kill ;
which he may prove by an affirmative, viz. that the
man said to be killed is still alive.

Again. "At which rate," continues our Barbadoes
author, " most negatives may be proved." There in-
deed the gentleman happened to stumble right; for
every negative capable of proof can only be proved
after the same manner, namely, by an affirmative.
"But then," he adds, "a man will be put upon
proving he did not kill, because such proof may be
had sometimes, and so the old rule will be discarded."
This is clearly a non sequitur (not an argument); for,
though a man may prove a negative, if he finds it for
his advantage, it does by no means follow that he shall
be obliged to do it, and so that old rule will be
preserved.

After such notable instances of a blundering, unlogical
head, we are not to be surprised at the many absurd-
ities and contradictions of this author, which occur in
the sequel of his no-argument.

But I shall only cite those passages where there is a
probability of guessing at his meaning; for he has so
preposterously jumbled together his little stock of ideas,

304 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

that, even after the greatest efforts, I could find but
very little sense or coherence in them. I should not,
however, have discontinued my labor, had I not been
apprehensive of the fate of poor Don Quixote, who ran
distracted by endeavouring to unbowel the sense of the
following passage ; " The reason of your unreasonable-
ness, which against my reason is wrought, doth so
weaken my reason, as with all reason I do justly com-
plain." There are several profound passages in the
remarks, not a whit inferior to this. This dissertation on
the negative and affirmative, I once thought to be an
exact counterpart of it.

Our author labors to prove that a libel, whether true
or false, is punishable. The first authority for this pur-
pose is the case of John de Northampton, adjudged in
the reign of Edward the Third. Northampton had wrote
a libellous letter to one of the king's council, purporting
that the judges would do no great things at the com-
mandment of the king, &,c. ; the said John was called,
and the court pronounced judgment against him on
these grounds, that the letter contained no truth in it,
and might incense the king against his judges. Mr.
Hamilton says, that by this judgment it appears the
libellous words were utterly false, and that the falsehood
was the crime, and is the ground of the judgment.
The remarker rejects this explanation, and gives us an
ingenious comment of his own. First, he says, there is
neither truth nor falsehood in the words, at the time
they were wrote. Secondly, that they were the same
as if John had said the roof of Westminster-hall would
fall on the judges. Thirdly, that the words taken by
themselves have no ill meaning. Fourthly, that the
judges ought to do their duty, without any respect to
the king's commandment (they are sworn so to do).
Fifthly, he asks, Where then was the offence ? He an-

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 305

swers, sixthly, The record shows it. Seventhly, he says
that the author of the letter was an nttorney of the
court, and, by the contents thereof, (meaning the con-
tents of the letter, not the contents of the court,) he
presumes to undertake for the behaviour of the judges.
Eighthly, that the letter was addressed to a person of
the king's council. Ninthly, that he might possibly
communicate it to the king. Tenthly, that it might
naturally incense the king against the court. Eleventh-
ly, that great things were done in those days by the
king's commandment, for the judges held their post at
will and pleasure. Twelfthly, that it was therefore
proper for the judges to assert, that the letter contained
no truth, in order to acquit themselves to the king.
Thirteenthly, that the judges asserted a falsehood, only
to acquit themselves to his Majesty, because what they
asserted was no ground of their judgment. Four-
teenthly, and lastly, the commentator avers (with much
modesty) that all this senseless stuff is a plain and
natural construction of the case ; but he would not have
us take it wholly on his own word, and undertakes to
show that the case was so understood by Noy, in whose
mouth our author puts just such becoming nonsense
as he entertained us with from himself.

It requires no great penetration to make this discus-
sion in question appear reasonable and intelligible. But
it ought first to be observed that Edward the Third was
one of the best and wisest, as well as the bravest of our
kings, and that the law had never a freer course than
under his reign. Where the letter mentions, that the
judges would do no great things (that is, illegal things)
by the king's commandment, it was plainly insinuated,
that the judges suspected that the king might command
them to do illegal things. Now, by the means of that
letter, the king being led to imagine that the judges

VOL. ii. 39 z*

306 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

harboured a suspicion so unworthy of him, might bf,
justly incensed against them. Therefore the record
truly says, that the letter was utterly false, and that
there was couched under it, an insinuation (certainly
malicious), that might raise an indignation in this king
against the court, &c., since it evidently appears, that
not only the falsehood, but also the malice, was the
ground of the judgment.

I agree with the remarker that Noy, citing this case,
says, that the letter contained no ill, yet the writer was
punished ; but these words are absolutely as they stand
in the remarks, detached from the context. Noy adduces
Northampton's case, to prove that a man is punishable
for contemplating without a cause, though the words of
the complaint (simply considered) should contain no ill
in them ; it is not natural to inquire whether the applica-
tion be just ; it is only an expression of a counsel at
the bar. The case was adjourned, and we hear no
more of it. Yet these words of Noy, the remarker
would pass on the reader as a good authority. " This
book, therefore,'' quoth he, referring to Godbolt's Re-
ports, " follows the record of Northampton's case, and
says, that because it might incense the king against the
judges he was punished ; which is almost a translation
of Prcetextu cujus" &,c. I could readily pardon our
author's gibberish, and want of apprehension, but cannot
so easily digest his insincerity.

The remarker in the next place proceeds to the trial
of the seven bishops; I shall quote his own words,
though I know they are so senseless and insipid, that
I run the risk of trespassing on the reader's patience ;
however, here they be ; " Mr. Justice Powell also does
say, that, to make it a libel, it must be false, it must be
malicious, and it must tend to sedition. Upon which
words of this learned and worthy judge, I would not

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 307

presume to offer any comment, except that which other
words of his own afford, that plainly show in what
sense he then spoke. His subsequent words are these,
4 The bishops tell his Majesty, it is not out of averse-
ness,' &,c. So that the judge put the whole upon that
single point, whether it be true that the king had a
dispensing power or not; which is a question of law,
and not of fact ; and accordingly the judge appeals to
his own reading hi the law, not to witnesses or other
testimonies, for a decision of it."

Now, the bishops had asserted in the libel they were
charged with, that the dispensing power, claimed by the
king in his declaration, was illegal. The remarker, by
granting that the prelates might prove part of their as-
sertion, viz. that the dispensing power was illegal, which
is a question of law, necessarily allows them to prove
the other part of their assertion, viz. that his Majesty
had claimed such a power, which is a question of fact ;
for the former could not be decided without proving or
admitting the latter, and so in all other cases, where a
man publishes of a magistrate, that he has acted or
commanded an illegal thing, if the defendant shall be
admitted to prove the mode or illegality of the thing,
it is evidently implied that he may prove the thing it-
self; so that, on the gentleman's own premises, it is a
clear consequence, that a man prosecuted for a libel,
shall be admitted to give the truth in evidence. The
remarker has a method of reasoning peculiar to him-
self; he frequently advances arguments, which directly
prove the very point he is laboring to confute.

But, in truth, Judge Powell's words would not have
given the least color to such a ridiculous distinction, if
they had been fairly quoted. He affirms, with the
strongest emphasis, that, to make it a libel, it must be
false, it must be malicious, and it must tend to sedition.

308 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Let it be observed that these three qualities of a libel
against the government are in the conjunctive. His sub-
sequent words are these, " As to the falsehood, I see
nothing that is offered by the king's counsel ; nor any
thing as to the malice." Here the judge puts the proof
both of the falsehood and the malice on the prosecutor ;
and, though the falsehood in this case was a question of
law, it will not be denied, but that the malice was a ques-
tion of fact. Now shall we attribute this omission to the
inadvertency of the remarker? No, that cannot be
supposed ; for the sentence immediately followed.
But they were nailing, decisive words, which, if they
were fairly quoted, had put an end to the dispute, and
left the remarker without the least room for evasion ;
and therefore he very honestly dropped them.

Our author says it is necessary to consult Bracton, in
order to fix our idea of a libel. Now Bracton, through-
out his five books De Legibus et Consuetudinibus
Jbiglia, only once happened to mention libels, very
perfunctorily. He says no more than that a man may
receive an injury by a lampoon and things of that
nature. Fit injuria cum de eo factum carmen famosum
et hujusmodi. Pray how is any person's idea of a
libel the better fixed by this description of it ? Our
author very sagaciously observes, on these words of
Bracton, that the falsity of a libel is neither expressed
nor implied by them. That it is not expressed, is self-
evident ; but that it is not implied, we have only the
remarker's ipse dixit for it.

But it was really idle and impertinent to draw this
ancient lawyer into the dispute, as nothing could be
learned from him, only that a libel is an injury, which
every body will readily grant I have good ground to
suspect, that our author did not consult Bracton on this
occasion ; the passage, cited in the remarks, is literally

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 309

transcribed from Coke's ninth report, folio sixty ; by
which an unlearned reader might be easily led to
believe, that our author was well skilled in ancient
learning ; ridiculous affectation and pedantry this.

To follow the remarker, through all his incoherencies
and absurdities, would be irksome ; and indeed nothing
is more vexatious than to be obliged to refute lies and
nonsense. Besides, a writer, who is convicted of im-
posing wilful falsehoods on the reader, ought to be
regarded with abhorrence and contempt. It is for this
reason I have treated him with an acrimony of style,
which nothing but his malice and want of sincerity, and
not his ignorance, his dulness, or vanity, could have
justified; however, as to the precedents and proceed-
ings against libelling, before the case of the seven
bishops, he ought to be left undisturbed hi the full
enjoyment of the honor he has justly acquired by tran-
scribing them from commonplace books and publishing
them in gazettes. Pretty speculations these to be
inserted in newspapers, especially when they come
clothed and loaded under the jargon and tackle of
the law.

I am sure, that by this time the reader must be
heartily tired with the little I have offered on the
subject, though I have endeavoured to speak so as to be
understood ; yet it in some measure appeared necessary
to expose the folly and ignorance of this author, mas-
much as he seemed to be cherished by some pernicious
insects of the profession, who, neglecting the noblest
parts, feed on the rotten branches of the law.

Besides, the liberty of the press would be wholly
abolished, if the remarker could have propagated the
doctrine of punishing truth. Yet he declares he would
not be thought to derogate from that noble privilege of

310 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

a free people. How does he reconcile these contradic-
tions ? why truly thus ; he says, that the liberty of the
press is a bulwark and two-edged weapon, capable of
cutting two ways, and is only to be trusted in the hands
of men of wit and address, and not with such fools as
rail without art. I pass over the blunder of his calling
a bulwark a two-edged weapon, for a lawyer is not
supposed to be acquainted with military terms ; but is
it not highly ridiculous, that the gentleman will not
allow a squib to be fired from the bulwark of liberty,
yet freely gives permission to erect on it a battery of
cannon ?

Upon the whole, to suppress inquiries into the ad-
ministration is good policy in an arbitrary government ;
but a free constitution and freedom of speech have
such a reciprocal dependence on each other, that they
cannot subsist without consisting together.*

* The evils of one extreme in the political condition of society in
regard to libels and treasons, as hi other things, renders men blind to
those of the opposite. The history of the period anterior to this essay
abounds in examples of the evils and abuses incident to the laws on
these subjects, and gave rise to the doctrine maintained in the text,
that nothing short of an absolute, unbridled licentiousness of the press
was consistent with political liberty. Subsequent experience has shown,
that the tyranny of a licentious press and of public opinion is to be
dreaded, on the one hand, as well as that of monarchs and privileged
classes on the other. The modern legislation on the subject of libel
stops far short of the doctrine here inculcated. According to that legis-
lation, the truth, when published wantonly and from malicious motives, for
bad purposes, may be a libel ; and, hi order to render the truth of a pub-
lication a sufficient justification, it must appear to have been published
from justifiable motives and for justifiable purposes. — W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 311

OBSERVATIONS

CONCERNING

THE INCREASE OF MANKIND AND THE PEOPLING OF COUNTRIES.
WRITTEN IN PENNSYLVANIA, 1751.

In the year 1755 a political tract was published in Boston,
entitled "Observations on the Late and Present Conduct of the
French ; " which was written by William Clarke, and dedicated to
Governor Shirley. To this pamphlet the following paper was
appended. Mr. Clarke says in his preface ; " The Observations
concerning the Increase of Mankind were written some years
ago ; but the ingenious author would never suffer them to be made
public till now, when he has been prevailed upon to consent to it
by some of his friends, who thought the publication of them would
be of general benefit and advantage." In 1760 appeared Franklin's
pamphlet, entitled " The Interest of Great Britain considered, with
Regard to her Colonies" published in London, to which this paper
was appended, with the following preliminary notice. " In con-
firmation of the writer's opinion concerning population, manufac-
tures, &c., he has thought it not amiss to add an extract from a
piece written some years since in America, where the facts must be
well known, on which the reasonings are founded." This " extract "
is all that has usually been included in the various collections of the
author's writings. The whole piece is printed below, as originally
contained in Mr. Clarke's pamphlet. — EDITOR.

1. TABLES of the proportion of marriages to births, of
deaths to births, of marriages to the number of inhabi-
tants, &c., formed on observations made upon the bills of
mortality, christenings, &c., of populous cities, will not
suit countries; nor will tables formed on observations,

312 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

made on full- settled old countries, as Europe, suit new
countries, as America.*

2. For people increase in proportion to the number
of marriages, and that is greater in proportion to the
ease and convenience of supporting a family. When
families can be easily supported, more persons marry,
and earlier in life.

3. In cities, where all trades, occupations, and offices
are full, many delay marrying till they can see how to
bear the charges of a family ; which charges are greater
in cities, as luxury is more common ; many live single
during life, and continue servants to families, journey-
men to trades, &,c. ; hence cities do not, by natural
generation, supply themselves with inhabitants; the
deaths are more than the births.

4. In countries full settled, the case must be nearly
the same ; all lands being occupied and unproved to the
height, those who cannot get land must labor for
others that have it; when laborers are plenty their
wages will be low ; by low wages a family is supported
with difficulty; this difficulty deters many from mar-
riage, who therefore long continue servants and single.
Only as the cities take supplies of people from the
country, and thereby make a little more room in the
country, marriage is a little more encouraged there,
and the births exceed the deaths.

5. Europe is generally full settled with husbandmen,
manufacturers, &c., and therefore cannot now much
increase in people. America is chiefly occupied by
Indians, who subsist mostly by hunting. But as the
hunter, of all men, requires the greatest quantity of land

* Nor will tables, which are accurately calculated at one period, neces-
sarily continue to be correct in the same country at another period. The
chances of life have been ascertained to be greater in Europe during the
last half century, than they were formerly. — W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 313

from whence to draw his subsistence, (the husbandman
subsisting on much less, the gardener on still less, and
the manufacturer requiring least of all,) the Europeans
found America as fully settled as it well could be by
hunters ; yet these, having large tracts, were easily pre-
vailed on to part with portions of territory to the new
comers, who did not much interfere with the natives in
hunting, and furnished them with many things they
wanted.

6. Land being thus plenty in America, and so cheap
as that a laboring man, that understands husbandry,
can in a short time save money enough to purchase a
piece of new land sufficient for a plantation, whereon
he may subsist a family, such are not afraid to marry ;
for, if they even look far enough forward to consider
how their children, when grown up, are to be provided
for, they see that more land is to be had at rates equally
easy, all circumstances considered.

7. Hence marriages hi America are more general, and
more generally early than in Europe. And if it is
reckoned there, that there is but one marriage per
annum among one hundred persons, perhaps we may
here reckon two ; and if in Europe they have but four
births to a marriage (many of their marriages being late),
we may here reckon eight, of which, if one half grow
up, and our marriages are made, reckoning one with
another, at twenty years of age, our people must at least
be doubled every twenty years.

8. But notwithstanding this increase, so vast is the
territory of North America, that it will require many
ages to settle it fully ; and, till it is fully settled, labor
will never be cheap here, where no man continues long
a laborer for others, but gets a plantation of his own, no
man continues long a journeyman to a trade, but goes
among those new settlers, and sets up for himself, &c.

VOL. n. 40 A A

314 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Hence labor is no cheaper now in Pennsylvania, than
it was thirty years ago, though so many thousand
laboring people have been imported.

9. The danger therefore of these colonies interfering
with their mother country in trades that depend on
labor, manufactures, &.C., is too remote to require the
attention of Great Britain.

10. But in proportion to the increase of the colonies,
a vast demand is growing for British manufactures, a
glorious market wholly in the power of Britain, in which
foreigners cannot interfere, which will increase in a short
time even beyond her power of supplying, though her
whole trade should be to her colonies ; therefore Britain
should not too much restrain manufactures in her
colonies. A wise and good mother will not do it. To
distress is to weaken, and weakening the children
weakens the whole family.

11. Besides, if the manufactures of Britain (by reason
of the American demands) should rise too high in price,
foreigners who can sell cheaper will drive her merchants
out of foreign markets ; foreign manufactures will there-
by be encouraged and increased, and consequently
foreign nations, perhaps her rivals in power, grow more
populous and more powerful ; while her own colonies,
kept too low, are unable to assist her, or add to her
strength.

12. It is an ill-grounded opinion that, by the labor of
slaves, America may possibly vie in cheapness of manu-
factures with Britain. The labor of slaves can never be
so cheap here as the labor of workingmen is in Britain.
Any one may compute it. Interest of money is in the
colonies from six to ten per cent. Slaves, one with
another, cost thirty pounds sterling per head. Reckon
then the interest of the first purchase of a slave, the
insurance or risk on his life, his cloth'.ng and diet,

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 315

expenses in his sickness and loss of time, loss by his
neglect of business (neglect is natural to the man who
is not to be benefited by his own care or diligence),
expense of a driver to keep him at work, and his pilfer-
ing from time to time, almost every slave being by
nature a thief, and compare the whole amount with the
wages of a manufacturer of iron or wool in England,
you will see that labor is much cheaper there than it
ever can be by negroes here. Why then will Ameri-
cans purchase slaves ? Because slaves may be kept as
long as a man pleases, or has occasion for their labor ;
while hired men are continually leaving their masters
(often in the midst of his business) and setting up for
themselves. — Sec. 8.

13. As the increase of people depends on the en-
couragement of marriages, the following things must
diminish a nation, viz. 1. The being conquered; for
the conquerors v '^C^ '*%s as many offices, and exact
as much trib srease tfr °^on the labor of the conquered,
as will maintain them in their new establishment ; and
this, diminishing the subsistence of the natives, dis-
courages their marriages, and so gradually diminishes
them, while the foreigners increase. 2. Loss of terri-

\j «/

tory. Thus, the Britons being driven into Wales, and
crowded together in a barren country insufficient to
support such great numbers, diminished till the people
bore a proportion to the produce, while the Saxons
increased on their abandoned lands, till the island be-
came full of English. And, were the English now
driven into Wales by some foreign nation, there would
in a few years, be no more Englishmen in Britain, than
there are now people in Wales. 3. Loss of trade.
Manufactures exported draw subsistence from foreign
countries for numbers; who are thereby enabled to
marry and raise families. If the nation be deprived of

316 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

any branch of trade, and no new employment is found
for the people occupied in that branch, it will also be
soon deprived of so many people. 4. Loss of food.
Suppose a nation has a fishery, which not only employs
great numbers, but makes the food and subsistence of
the people cheaper. If another nation becomes master
of the seas, and prevents the fishery, the people will
diminish in proportion as the loss of employ and dear-
ness of provision make it more difficult to subsist a
family. 5. Bad government and insecure property.
People not only leave such a country, and, settling
abroad, incorporate with other nations, lose their native
language, and become foreigners, but, the industry of
those that remain being discouraged, the quantity of
subsistence in the country is lessened, and the support
of a family becomes more difficult. So heavy taxes
tend to diminish a people. 6. The introduction of
slaves. The negroes brought ii^ ^ ^the English sugar
islands have greatly diminished ^ge too 'tes there ; the
poor are, by this means, deprived ot employment, while
a few families acquire vast estates, which they spend on
foreign luxuries, and educating their children in the
habit of those luxuries ; the same income is needed for
the support of one that might have maintained one hun-
dred. The whites who have slaves, not laboring, are
enfeebled, and therefore not so generally prolific; the
slaves being worked too hard, and ill fed, their constitu-
tions are broken, and the deaths among them are more
than the births ; so that a continual supply is needed
from Africa. The northern colonies, having few slaves,
increase in whites. Slaves also pejorate the families
that use them ; the white children become proud, dis-
gusted with labor, and, being educated in idleness, are
rendered unfit to get a living by industry.

14. Hence the prince that acquires new territory, if

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 317

he finds it vacant, or removes the natives to give his
own people room; the legislator that makes effectual
laws for promoting of trade, increasing employment, /
improving of land by more or better tillage, providing
more food by fisheries, securing property, &,c. ; and
the man that invents new trades, arts, or manufactures,
or new improvements in husbandry, may be properly
called fathers of their nation, as they are the cause of
the generation of multitudes, by the encouragement
they afford to marriage.

15. As to privileges granted to the married, (such
as the jus trium liberorum among the Romans,) they
may hasten the filling of a country that has been thin-
ned by war or pestilence, or that has otherwise vacant
territory ; but cannot increase a people beyond the
means provided for their subsistence.

16. Foreign luxuries and needless manufactures,
imported and used in a nation, do, by the same
reasoning, increase the people of the nation that fur-
nishes them, and diminish the people of the nation that
uses them. Laws, therefore, that prevent such im-
portations, and on the contrary promote the exportation
of manufactures to be consumed in foreign countries,
may be called (with respect to the people that make
them) generative laws, as, by increasing subsistence
they encourage marriage. Such laws likewise strength-
en a country doubly, by increasing its own people and
diminishing its neighbours.

17. Some European nations prudently refuse to con-
sume the manufactures of East India ; they should like-
wise forbid them to their colonies ; for the gain to the
merchant is not to be compared with the loss, by this
means, of people to the nation.

18. Home luxury in the great increases the nation's
manufacturers employed by it, who are many, and only

AA*

318 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

tends to diminish the families that indulge in it, who are
few. The greater the common fashionable expense of
any rank of people, the more cautious they are of mar-
riage. Therefore luxury should never be suffered to
become common.

19. The great increase of offspring in particular
families is not always owing to greater fecundity of
nature, but sometimes to examples of industry in the
heads, and industrious education ; by which the chil-
dren are enabled to provide better for themselves, and
their marrying early is encouraged from the prospect
of good subsistence.

20. If there be a sect, therefore, in our nation, that
regard frugality and industry as religious duties, and
educate their children therein, more than others com-
monly do ; such sect must consequently increase more
by natural generation, than any other sect in Britain.-

21. The importation of foreigners into a country, that
has as many inhabitants as the present employments
and provisions for subsistence will bear, will be in the
end no increase of people, unless the new comers have
more industry and frugality than the natives, and then
they will provide more subsistence, and increase in the
country ; but they will gradually eat the natives out.
Nor is it necessary to bring in foreigners to fill up any
occasional vacancy in a country ; for such vacancy (if
the laws are good, sec. 14, 16,) will soon be filled by
natural generation. Who can now find the vacancy
made in Sweden, France, or other warlike nations, by
the plague of heroism, forty years ago ; in France, by
the expulsion of the Protestants ; in England, by the
settlement of her colonies ; or in Guinea, by one hun-
dred years' exportation of slaves, that has blackened half
America? The thinness of inhabitants in Spain is
owing to national pride and idleness, and other causes,

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 319

rather than to the expulsion of the Moors, or to the
making of new settlements.

22. There is, in short, no bound to the prolific na-
ture of plants or animals, but what is made by their
crowding and interfering with each other's means of
subsistence. Was the face of the earth vacant of other
plants, it might be gradually sowed and overspread with
one kind only^ as, for instance, with fennel ; and, were
it empty of other inhabitants, it might in a few ages be
replenished from one nation only, as, for instance, with
Englishmen. Thus, there are supposed to be now
upwards of one million English souls in North America,
(though it is thought scarce eighty thousand has been
brought over sea,) and yet perhaps there is not one the
fewer in Britain, but rather many more, on account of
the employment the colonies afford to manufacturers
at home. This million doubling, suppose but once in
twenty-five years,* will, in another century, be more
than the people of England, and the greatest number
of Englishmen will be on this side the water. What an
accession of power to the British empire by sea as well
as land ! What increase of trade and navigation !
What numbers of ships and seamen ! We have been
here but little more than one hundred years, and yet
the force of our privateers in the late war, united, was
greater, both in men and guns, than that of the whole
British navy in Queen Elizabeth's tune. How impor-
tant an affair then to Britain is the present treaty for
settling the bounds between her colonies and the

* This was a singularly just estimate of the period for doubling the
population, and has proved to be substantially correct, since periodical
enumerations have been made, from 1790 down to the present time (1835) ;
the rate of increase, shown by these censuses, being the same as it was
estimated in 1751, that it would be. The prediction in the text, as to the
probable number of inhabitants, is therefore likely to be fully verified. —
W. PHILLIPS.

320 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

French, and how careful should she be to secure room
enough, since on the room depends so much the in-
crease of her people.

23. In fine, a nation well regulated is like a polypus ;
take away a limb, its place is soon supplied ; cut it in
two, and each deficient part shall speedily grow out of
the part remaining. Thus, if you have room and sub-
sistence enough, as you may, by dividing, make ten
polypuses out of one, you may of one make ten nations,
equally populous and powerful ; or rather increase a
nation ten fold in numbers and strength.

And since detachments of English from Britain, sent
to America, will have their places at home so soon sup-
plied and increase so largely here ; why should the
Palatine boors be suffered to swarm into our settle-
ments, and, by herding together, establish their lan-
guage and manners, to the exclusion of ours? Why
should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become
a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as
to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and
will never adopt our language or customs any more than
they can acquire our complexion?

24. Which leads me to add one remark, that the
number of purely white people in the world is propor-
tionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny;
Asia chiefly tawny; America (exclusive of the new
comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards,
Italians, French, Russians, and Swedes, are generally
of what we call a swarthy complexion ; as are the
Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who, with the
English, make the principal body of white people on
the face of the earth. I could wish their numbers were
increased. And while we are, as I may call it, scour-
ing our planet, by clearing America of woods, and so
making this side of our globe reflect a brighter light to

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 321

the eyes of inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should
we, in the sight of superior beings, darken its people ?
Why increase the sons of Africa, by planting them in
America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by
excluding all blacks and tawnys, of increasing the lovely
white and red ? But perhaps I am partial to -the com-
plexion of my country, for such kind of partiality is
natural to mankind.

REMARKS

ON SOME OF THE FOREGOING OBSERVATIONS, SHOWING PARTICU-
LARLY THE EFFECTS WHICH MANNERS HAVE ON POPULATION.

In a Letter from Richard Jackson of London to the Author.

DEAR SIR,

IT is now near three years since I received . your ex-
cellent Observations on the Increase of Mankind, in
which you have with so much sagacity and accuracy
shown in what manner, and by what causes, that princi-
pal means of political grandeur is best promoted ; and
have so well supported those just inferences you have
occasionally drawn, concerning the general state of our
American colonies, and the views and conduct of some
of the inhabitants of Great Britain.

You have abundantly proved, that natural fecundity is
hardly to be considered, because the vis generandi, as
far as we know, is unlimited, and because experience
shows, that the numbers of nations are altogether govern-
ed by collateral causes, and among these none of so
much force as the quantity of subsistence, whether aris-
ing from climate, soil, improvement of tillage, trade, fish-
eries, secure property, conquest of new countries, or
other favorable circumstances.

VOL. II. 41

322 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

As I perfectly concurred with you in your sentiments
on these heads, I have been very desirous of building
somewhat on the foundation you have there laid ; and
was induced, by your hints in the twenty-first sec-
tion, to trouble you with some thoughts on the influence
manners have always had, and are always likely to
have, on the numbers of a people, and their political
prosperity in general.

~ The end of every individual is its own private good.
The rules it observes in the pursuit of this good are a
system of propositions, almost every one founded in
authority, that is, derive their weight from the credit
given to one or more persons, and not from demon-
stration.

And this, in the most important as well as the other
affairs of life, is the case even of the wisest and philo-
sophical part of the human species ; and that it should
be so is the less strange, when we consider, that it is
perhaps impossible to prove, that being, or life itself, has
any other value than what is set on it by authority.

A confirmation of this may be derived from the ob-
servation, that, in every country in the universe, happi-
ness is sought upon a different plan ; and, even in the
same country, we see it placed by different ages, pro-
fessions, and ranks of men, in the attainment of enjoy-
ments utterly unlike.

These propositions, as well as others framed upon
them, become habitual by degrees, and, as they govern
the determination of the will, I call them moral habits.

There are another set of habits, that have the direc-
tion of the members of the body, that I call therefore
mechanical habits. These compose what we commonly
call the arts, which are more or less liberal or mechan-
ical, as they more or less partake of assistance from the
operations of the mind.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 323

The cumulus of the moral habits of each individual is
the manners of that individual ; the cumulus of the man-
ners of individuals makes up the manners of a nation.

The happiness of individuals is evidently the ultimate
end of political society ; and political welfare, or the
strength, splendor, and opulence of the state, have been
always admitted, both by political writers, and the valu-
able part of mankind in general, to conduce to this end,
and are therefore desirable.

The causes that advance or obstruct any one of
these three objects, are external or internal. The latter
may be divided into physical, civil, and personal, under
which last head I comprehend the moral and mechani-
cal habits of mankind. The physical causes are princi-
pally climate, soil, and number of persons ; the civil, are
government and laws; and political welfare is always
in a ratio composed of the force of these particular
causes. A multitude of external causes, and all these
internal ones, not only control and qualify, but are con-
stantly acting on, and thereby insensibly, as well as
sensibly, altering one another, both for the better and
the worse, and this, not excepting the climate itself.

The powerful efficacy of manners in increasing a
people is manifest from the instance you mention, the
Quakers ; among them industry and frugality multiply
and extend the use of the necessaries of life ; to man-
ners of a like kind are owing the populousness of Hol-
land, Switzerland, China, Japan, and most parts of
Hindostan, &c., in every one of which the force of
extent of territory and fertility of soil is multiplied, or *
their want compensated by industry and frugality.

Neither nature nor art has contributed much to the
production of subsistence in Switzerland ; yet we see
frugality preserves and even increases families that live
on their fortunes, and which, in England, we call the

324 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

gentry ; and the observation we cannot but make in the
southern part of this kingdom, that those families, in-
cluding all superior ones, are gradually becoming ex-
tinct, affords the clearest proof, that luxury (that is, a
greater expense of subsistence than in prudence a man
ought to consume) is as destructive, as a disproportiona-
ble want of it ; but in Scotland, as in Switzerland, the
gentry, though one with another they have not one
fourth of the income, increase in number.

And here I cannot help remarking, by the by, how
well founded your distinction is between the increase of
mankind in old and new settled countries in general,
and more particularly in the case of families of condition.
In America, where the expenses are more confined to
necessaries, and those necessaries are cheap, it is com-
mon to see above one hundred persons descended from
one living old man. In England, it frequently happens,
where a man has seven, eight, or more children, there
has not been a descendant in the next generation, oc-
casioned by the difficulties the number of children has
brought on the family, in a luxurious, dear country, and
which have prevented their marrying.

That this is more owing to luxury than mere want,
appears from what I have said of Scotland, and more
plainly from parts of England remote from London, in
most of which the necessaries of life are nearly as dear,
in some dearer than London ; yet the people of all ranks
marry and breed up children.

Again ; among the lower ranks of life, none produce
so few children as servants. This is, in some measure,
to be attributed to their situation, which hinders mar-
riage, but is also to be attributed to their luxury and
corruption of manners, which are greater than among
any other set of people in England, and is the conse-
quence of a nearer view of the lives and persons of a

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 325

superior rank, than any inferior rank, without a proper
education, ought to have.

The quantity of subsistence in England has unques-
tionably become greater for many ages ; and yet, if the
inhabitants are more numerous, they certainly are not
so in proportion to our improvement of the means of
support. I am apt to think there are few parts of this
kingdom, that have not been at some former time more
populous than at present. I have several cogent rea-
sons for thinking so of a great part of the countries I
am most intimately acquainted with ; but, as they were
probably not all most populous at the same time, and as
some of our towns are visibly and vastly grown in bulk,
I dare not suppose, as judicious men have done, that
England is less peopled than heretofore.

The growth of our towns is the effect of a change of
manners, and improvement of arts, common to all Eu-
rope ; and though it is not imagined, that it has lessened
the country growth of necessaries, it has evidently, by
introducing a greater consumption of them (an infallible
consequence of a nation's dwelling in towns), counter-
acted the effects of our prodigious advances in the arts.

But however frugality may supply the place, or prod-
igality counteract the effects, of the natural, or acquired
subsistence of a country, industry is, beyond doubt, a
more efficacious cause of plenty than any natural ad-
vantage of extent or fertility. I have mentioned in-
stances of frugality and industry, united with extent and
fertility. In Spain and Asia Minor, we see frugality
joined to extent and fertility, without industry ; in Ire-
land, we once saw the same ; Scotland had then none
of them but frugality. The change in these two coun-
tries is obvious to every one, and it is owing to industry
not yet very widely diffused in either. The effects of
industry and frugality in England are surprising ; both

VOL. II. BB

326 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

the rent and the value of the inheritance of land depend
on them greatly more than on nature, and this, though
there is no considerable difference in the prices of our
markets. Land of equal goodness lets for double the
rent of other land lying in the same county, and there
are many years' purchase difference between different
counties, where rents are equally well paid and secure.

Thus manners operate upon the number of inhabit-
ants ; but of their silent effects upon the civil constitu-
tion, history, and even our own experience, yields us
abundance of proofs, though they are not uncommonly
attributed to external causes ; their support of a gov-
ernment against external force is so great, that it is a
common maxim among the advocates of liberty, that no
free government was ever dissolved, or overcome,
before the manners of its subjects were corrupted.

The superiority of Greece over Persia was singly
owing to their difference of manners ; and that, though
all natural advantages were on the side of the latter, to
which I might add civil ones ; for, though the greatest of
all civil advantages, liberty, was on the side of Greece,
yet that added no political strength to her, other than as
it operated on her manners, and, when they were cor-
rupted, the restoration of their liberty by the Romans,
overturned the remains of their power.

Whether the manners of ancient Rome were at any
period calculated to promote the happiness of individu-
als, it is not my design to examine ; but that their
manners, and the effects of those manners on their
government and public conduct, founded, enlarged, and
supported, and afterwards overthrew their empire, is
beyond all doubt. One of the effects of their conquest
furnishes us with a strong proof, how prevalent manners
are even beyond the quantity of subsistence ; for, when
the custom of bestowing on the citizens of Rome corn

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 327

enough to support themselves and families, was become
established, and Egypt and Sicily produced the grain,
that fed the inhabitants of Italy, this became less pop-
ulous every day, and the jus trium liberorum was but
an expedient, that could not balance the want of indus-
try and frugality.

But corruption of manners did not only thin the
inhabitants of the Roman empire, but it rendered the
remainder incapable of defence, long before its fall,
perhaps before the dissolution of the republic ; so that
without standing disciplined armies, composed of men,
whose moral habits principally, and mechanical habits
secondarily, made them different from the body of the
people, the Roman empire had been a prey to the
barbarians many ages before it was.

By the mechanical habits of the soldiery, I mean
their discipline, and the art of war ; and that this is
but a secondary quality, appears from the inequality
that has in all ages been between raw, though well-dis-
ciplined armies, and veterans, and more from the irre-
sistible force a single moral habit, religion, has conferred
on troops, frequently neither disciplined nor experi-
enced.

The military manners of the noblesse in France com-
pose the chief force of that kingdom, and the enterpris-
ing manners and restless dispositions of the inhabitants
of Canada have enabled a handful of men to harass our
populous and generally less martial colonies ; yet neither
are of the value they seem at first sight, because over-
balanced by the defect they occasion of other habits,
that would produce more eligible political good; and
military manners in a people are not necessary in an
age and country where such manners may be occasion-
ally formed and preserved among men enough to defend
the state ; and such a country is Great Britain, where,

328 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

though the lower class of people are by no means of a
military cast, yet they make better soldiers than even
the noblesse of France.

The inhabitants of this country, a few ages back,
were to the populous and rich provinces of France,
what Canada is now to the British colonies. It is true,
there was less disproportion between their natural
strength ; but I mean, that the riches of France were a
real weakness, opposed to the military manners founded
upon poverty and a ragged disposition, then the charac-
ter of the English ; but it must be remembered, that at
this time the manners of a people were not distinct from
that of their soldiery, for the use of standing armies has
deprived a military people of the advantages they
before had over others ; and though it has been often
said, that civil wars give power, because they render all
men soldiers, I believe this has only been found true in
internal wars following civil wars, and not in external
ones ; for now, in foreign wars, a small army, with am-
ple means to support it, is of greater force than one
more numerous, with less. This last fact has often
happened between France and Germany.

The means of supporting armies, and consequently
the power of exerting external strength, are best found
in the industry and frugality of the body of a people
living under a government and laws, that encourage
commerce ; for commerce is at this day almost the only
stimulus, that forces every one to contribute a share of
labor for the public benefit.

But such is the human frame, and the world is so
constituted, that it is a hard matter to possess one's self
of a benefit, without laying one's self open to a loss on
some other side ; the improvements of manners of one
sort often deprave those of another ; thus we see in-
dustry and frugality under the influence of commerce.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 329

which I call a commercial spirit, tend to destroy, as well
as support, the government it flourishes under.

Commerce perfects the arts, but more the mechanical
than the liberal, and this for an obvious reason; it
softens and enervates the manners. Steady virtue and
unbending integrity are seldom to be found where
a spirit of commerce pervades every thing ; yet the per-
fection of commerce is, that every thing should have its
price. We every day see its progress, both to our
benefit and detriment here. Things, that boni mores
forbid to be set to sale, are become its objects, and
there are few things indeed extra commercium. The
legislative power itself has been in commercio, and
church livings are seldom given without consideration,
even by sincere Christians, and, for consideration, not
seldom to very unworthy persons. The rudeness of
ancient military times, and the fury of more modern
enthusiastic ones, are worn off; even the spirit of foren-
sic contention is astonishingly diminished, all marks of
manners softening ; but luxury and corruption have
taken their places, and seem the inseparable companions
of commerce and the arts.

I cannot help observing, however, that this is much
more the case in extensive countries, especially at their
metropolis, than in other places. It is an old observa-
tion of politicians, and frequently made by historians,
that small states always best preserve their manners.
Whether this happens from the greater room there
is for attention in the legislature, or from the less room
there is for ambition and avarice, it is a strong argument,
among others, against an incorporating union of the col-
onies in America, or even a federal one, that may tend
to the future reducing them under one government.

Their power, while disunited, is less, but their liber-
ty, as well as manners, is more secure ; and, considering

VOL. II. 42 BB *

330 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

the little danger of any conquest to be made upon
them, I had rather they should suffer something
through disunion, than see them under a general
administration less equitable than that concerted at
Albany.*

I take it, the inhabitants of Pennsylvania are both
frugal and industrious beyond those of any province in
America. If luxury should spread, it cannot be extir-
pated by laws. We are told by Plutarch, that Plato
used to say, It was a hard thing to make laws for the
Cyrenians, a people abounding in plenty and opulence.

But from what I set out with it is evident, if I be not
mistaken, that education only can stem the torrent, and,
without checking either true industry or frugality, pre-
vent the sordid frugality and laziness of the old Irish,
and many of the modern Scotch, (I mean the inhabitants
of that country, those who leave it for another being
generally industrious,) or the industry, mixed with luxu-
ry, of this capital, from getting ground, and, by render-
ing ancient manners familiar, produce a reconciliation be-
tween disinterestedness and commerce ; a thing we often
see, but almost always in men of a liberal education.

To conclude ; when we would form a people, soil and
climate may be found at least sufficiently good ; inhab-
itants may be encouraged to settle, and even supported
for a while ; a good government and laws may be fram-
ed, and even arts may be established, or their produce
imported ; but many necessary moral habits are hardly
ever found among those who voluntarily offer themselves,
in times of quiet at home, to people new colonies ;
besides that the moral, as well as mechanical habits,
adapted to a mother country, are frequently not so to

* Alluding to a plan for the union of the colonies, which had been
concerted by a convention at Albany. The papers relating to this subject
may bo seen in another part of this work. — EDITOR.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 331

the new settled one, and to external events, many of
which are always unforeseen. Hence it is we have
seen such fruitless attempts to settle colonies, at an
immense public and private expense, by several of the
powers of Europe; and it is particularly observable,
that none of the English colonies became any way
considerable, till the necessary manners were born and
grew up in the country, excepting those to which
singular circumstances at home forced manners fit' for
the forming a new state.

I am, Sir, &c. R. J

REMARKS

ON JUDGE FOSTER'S ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF THE RIGHT OP
IMPRESSING SEAMEN.

These remarks were written in pencil on the margin of Judge
Foster's REPORT, in which was contained his argument respecting
the impressment of seamen. The extracts from the REPORT are
printed below in the smaller type, and each is followed by Frank-
lin's remarks in the larger type. The references are to the edition
of 1762. — EDITOR.

Page 157. " The only question at present is, whether mariners,
persons who have freely chosen a seafaring life, persons whose
education and employment have fitted them for the service, and
inured them to it, whether such persons may not be legally pressed
into the service of the crown, whenever the public safety requireth
it ; ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat.

"For my part, I think they may. I think the crown hath a
right to command the service of these people whenever the public
safety calleth for it. The same right that it hath to require the
personal service of every man able to bear arms in case of a

332 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

sudden invasion or formidable insurrection. The right in both
cases is founded on one and the same principle, the necessity of the
case in order to the preservation of the whole."

The conclusion here, from the whole to a part, does
not seem to be good logic. When the personal service
of every man is called for, there the burthen is equal.
Not so, when the service of part is called for, and
others excused. If the alphabet should say, Let us all
fight for the defence of the whole ; that is equal, and
may therefore be just. But if they should say, Let A,
B, C, and D, go and fight for us, while we stay at
home and sleep in whole skins ; that is not equal, and
therefore cannot be just.

Page 158. " It would be time very ill spent to go about to prove
that this nation can never be long in a state of safety, our coast
defended, and our trade protected, without a naval force equal to
all the emergencies that may happen. And how can we be secure
of such a force? The keeping up the same naval force in time of
peace, which will be absolutely necessary for our security in time
of war, would be an absurd, a fruitless, and a ruinous expense.
The only course then left, is for the crown to employ, upon emergent
occasions, the mariners bred up in the merchant's service."

Employ — if you please. The word signifies engag-
ing a man to work for me by offering him such wages
as are sufficient to induce him to prefer my service.
This is very different from compelling him to work for
me on such terms as I think proper.

" And as for the mariner himself, he, when taken into the service
of the crown, only changeth masters for a time ; his service and
employment continue the very same, with this advantage, that the
dangers of the sea and enemy are not so great in the service of the
crown as in that of the merchant."

These are false facts. His service and employment
are not the same. Under the merchant, he goes in an
unarmed vessel not obliged to fight, but only to trans-
port merchandise. In the king's service, he is obliged to

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 333

fight, and to hazard all the dangers of battle. £>ickness
on board the king's ships is also more common and
more mortal. The merchant's service too he can quit
at the end of a voyage, not the king's. Also the
merchant's wages are much higher.

" I am very sensible of the hardship the sailor sufFereth from an
impress in some particular cases, especially if pressed homeward-
bound after a long voyage. But the merchants who hear me
know, that an impress on outward-bound vessels would be attended
with much greater inconveniences to the trade of the kingdom ;
and yet that too is sometimes necessary."

Here are two things put in comparison that are not
comparable, viz. injury to seamen and inconvenience
to trade. Inconvenience to the whole trade of a nation
will not justify injustice to a single seaman. If the
trade would suffer without his service, it is able and
ought to be willing to offer him such wages as may
induce him to afford his services voluntarily.

" But where two evils present, a wise administration, if there be
room for an option, will choose the least"

The least evil, in case seamen are wanted, is to give
them such wages as will induce them to enlist volun-
tarily. Let this evil be divided among the whole
nation, by an equal tax to pay such wages.

Page 159. " War itself is a great evil, but it is chosen to avoid
a greater. The practice of pressing is one of the mischiefs war
bringeth with it. But it is a maxim in law, and good policy too,
that private mischiefs must be borne with patience for preventing
a national calamity"

Where is this maxim in law and good policy to be
found ? And how came that to be a maxim, which is not
consistent with common sense ? If the maxim had been,
that private mischiefs which prevent a national calamity
ought to be generously compensated by that nation,
one might have understood it. But that such private
mischiefs are only to be borne with patience, is absurd.

334 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

" And |LS no greater calamity can befall us than to be vieak and
defenceless at sea in a time of war, so I do not know that the
wisdom of the nation hath hitherto found out any method of
manning our navy less inconvenient than pressing, and, at the same
time, equally sure and effectual."

Less inconvenient to whom ? To the rich, indeed,
who ought to be taxed. No mischief more incon-
venient to poor seamen could possibly be contrived.

" The expedient of a voluntary register, which was attempted in
King William's time, had no effect. And some late schemes I have
seen, appear to me more inconvenient to the mariner, and more
inconsistent with the principles of liberty, than the practice of
pressing; and, what is still worse, they are in my opinion totally
impracticable."

Twenty ineffectual or inconvenient schemes will not
justify one that is unjust.

Page 159. "The crown's right of impressing seamen is ground-
ed upon common law."

If impressing seamen is of right by common law in
Britain, slavery is then of right by common law there ;
there being no slavery worse than that sailors are
subjected to.

Ibid. " The result of evident necessity."

Pressing not so, if the end might be answered by
giving higher wages.

Page 160. " There are many precedents of writs for pressing.
Some are for pressing ships ; others for pressing mariners ; and
others for pressing ships and mariners. This general view will be
sufficient to let us into the nature of these precedents. And though
the affair of pressing ships is not now before me, yet I could not well
avoid mentioning it, because many of the precedents I have met
with and must cite, go as well to that, as to ,the business of pressing
mariners. And, taken together, they serve to show the power the
crown hath constantly exercised over the whole naval force of the
kingdom as well shipping as mariners, whenever the public service
required it. This however must be observed, that no man served

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 335

the crown in either case at his own expense. Masters and mariners
received full wages, and owners were constantly paid a full freight."

Fidl wages. Probably the same they received in the
merchant's service. Full wages to a seaman in time
of war, are the wages he has in the merchant's service
in war time. But half such wages is not given in the
king's ships to impressed seamen.

Page 173. "Do not these things incontestably presuppose the
expediency, the necessity, and the legality of an impress in general 1
If they do not, one must entertain an opinion of the legislature
acting and speaking in this manner, which it will not be decent for
me to mention in this place."

I will risk that indecency, and mention it. They
were not honest men ; they acted unjustly by the sea-
men, (who have no vote in elections, or being abroad
cannot use them if they have them,) to save their own
purses and those of their constituents. Former parlia-
ments acted the same injustice towards the laboring
people, who had not forty shillings a year in lands ;
after depriving them wickedly of their right to vote in
elections, they limited their wages, and compelled them
to work at such limited rates, on penalty of being sent
to houses of correction. Sec. 8. H. vi. Chap. 7 and 8.

Page 174. " I readily admit that an impress is a restraint upon
the natural liberty of those who are liable to it. But it must like-
wise be admitted, on the other hand, that every restraint upon
natural liberty is not eo nomine illegal, or at all inconsistent with the
principles of civil liberty. • And if the restraint, be it to what
degree soever, appeareth to be necessary to the good and welfare of
the whole, and to be warranted by statute law, as well as immemo-
rial usage, it cannot be complained of otherwise than as a private
mischief ; which, as I said at the beginning, must under all govern-
ments whatsoever be submitted to for avoiding a public incon-
venience."

I do not see the propriety of this must. The private
mischief is the loss of liberty and the hazard of life,

336 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

with only half wages, to a great number of honest men.
The public inconvenience is merely a higher rate of
seamen's wages. He who thinks such private injustice
must be done to avoid public inconvenience, may
understand law, but seems imperfect in his knowledge
of equity. Let us apply this author's doctrine to his
own case. It is for the public service that courts
should be had and judges appointed to administer the
laws. The judges should be bred to the law and
skilled in it, but their great salaries are a public incon-
venience. To remove the inconvenience, let press-
warrants issue to arrest and apprehend the best
lawyers, and compel them to serve as judges for half
the money they would have made at the bar. Then
tell them, that, though this is to them a private mischief,
it must be submitted to for avoiding a public incon-
venience. Would the learned judge approve such use
of his doctrine ?

When the author speaks of impressing, page 158, he
diminishes the horror of the practice as much as possi-
ble, by presenting to the mind one sailor only suffering
a hardship as he tenderly calls it, in some particular
cases only ; and he places against this private mischief
the inconvenience to the trade of the kingdom. But if,
as I suppose is often the case, the sailor who is pressed
and obliged to serve for the defence of this trade at the
rate of 25s. a month, could have =£3. 15s, in the mer-
chant's service, you take from him 50s. a month ; and if
you have 100,000 in your service, you rob that honest
part of society and their poor families of £250,000. per
month, or three millions a year, and at the same time
oblige them to hazard their lives in fighting for the
defence of your trade; to the defence of which all
ought indeed to contribute, (and sailors among the rest,)
in proportion to their profits by it ; but this three mil-

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 337

lions is more than their share, if they did not pay with
their persons ; and, when you force that, methinks you
should excuse the other.

But it may be said, to give the king's seamen mer-
chant's wages would cost the nation too much, and call
for more taxes. The question then will amount to this ;
whether it be just in a community, that the richer part
should compel the poorer to fight for them and their
properties, for such wages as they think fit to allow,
and punish them if they refuse ? Our author tells us it
is legal. I have not law enough to dispute his authori-
ty, but I cannot persuade myself it is equitable. I will
however own for the present, that pressing may be law-
ful when necessary ; but then I contend that it may be
used so as to produce the same good effect, the public
security, without doing so much horrible injustice as at-
tends the impressing common seamen. In order to be
better understood, I would premise two things. First,
that voluntary seamen might be had for the service, if
they were sufficiently paid. The proof of this is, that
to serve in the same ships, and incur the same dangers,
you have no occasion to impress captains, lieutenants,
second lieutenants, midshipmen, pursers, nor any other
officers. Why, but that the profit of their places, or
the emoluments expected, are sufficient inducements?
The business then is by impressing to find money suffi-
cient to make the sailors all volunteers, as well as their
officers ; and this without any fresh burthen upon trade.
The second of my premises is, that, 25s. a month, with
his share of the salt beef, pork, and pease-pudding, being
found sufficient for the subsistence of a hard-working
seaman, it will certainly be so for a sedentary scholar or
gentleman. I would then propose to form a treasury,
out of which encouragement to seamen should be paid.
To fill this treasury I would impress a number of civil

VOL. ii. 43 cc

338 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

officers who at present have great salaries, oblige them
to serve in their respective offices for 25s. per month,
with their share of the mess provisions, and throw the
rest of their salaries into the seaman's treasury. If such
a press-warrant was given me to execute, the first per-
son I would press should be a recorder of Bristol, or a
Mr. Justice Foster, because I might have need of his
edifying example, to show how such impressing ought
to be borne with ; for he would certainly find, that,
though to be reduced to 25s. per month might be a
private mischief, yet that, agreeably to his maxim of law
and good policy, it ought to be borne with patience for
preventing a national calamity. Then I would press
the rest of the judges ; and, opening the Red Book, I
would press every civil officer of government from <£50.
a year up to £50,000., which would throw an immense
sum into our treasury ; and these gentlemen could not
well complain, since they would receive their 25s. a
month and their rations, and that too without being
obliged to fight. Lastly, I think I would impress the
King, and confiscate his salary ; but, from an ancient
prejudice I have in favor of that title, I would allow him
the gentleman merchant's pay. I could not go farther in
his favor ; for, to say the truth, I am not quite satisfied
of the necessity or utility of that office in Great Britain,
as I see many flourishing states in the world governed
well and happy without it.

Page 177. " For I freely declare, that ancient precedents alone,
unless supported by modern practice, weigh very little with me in
questions of this nature."

The modern practice, supported by ancient prece-
dents, weigh as little with me. Both the one and the
other only show that the constitution is yet imperfect,
since in so general a case it doth not secure liberty, but
destroys it ; and the parliaments are unjust, conniving

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 339

at oppression of the poor, where the rich are to be
gamers or savers by such oppression.

Page 179. " I make no apology for the length of my argument,
because I hope the importance of the question will be thought a
sufficient excuse for me in this respect."

The author could not well have made his argument
shorter. It required a long discourse to throw dust in
the eyes of common sense, confound all our ideas of
right and wrong, make black seem white, and the
worse appear the better ouinion.

340 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

REMARKS AND FACTS

RELATIVE TO THE AMERICAN PAPER MONEY.

Mr. Vaughan says, in his edition of the author's writings ; " The
best account I can give of the occasion of the Report, to which this
paper is a reply, is as follows. During the war there had been a
considerable and unusual trade to America, in consequence of the
great fleets and armies on foot there, and the clandestine dealings
with the enemy, who were cut off from their own supplies. This
made great debts. The briskness of the trade ceasing with the war,
the merchants were anxious for payment ; which occasioned some
confusion in the colonies, and stirred up a clamor here against
paper money. The Board of Trade, of which Lord Hillsborough
was the chief, joined in this opposition to paper money, as appears by
the Report. Dr. Franklin, being asked to draw up an answer to
their Report, wrote the following paper."

In addition to the facts here communicated on the general subject
of American paper money, the author explains the causes of the
various denominations of the currency in the different colonies ; that
is, why the number of shillings and pence assigned to a dollar was
larger or smaller in one colony than in others. This topic is
curious, if not important, even at the present day ; since the prac-
tice of forty years, founded on a coin of the decimal notation, uni-
versally adopted in the transactions of the government, has done little
to effect a change in the habits of the people, who, in many parts of
the country, still adhere to the old mode of reckoning by shillings
and pence. — EDITOR.

This paper is a very able vindication of the provincial paper-
money system. The mere authority of Franklin's opinion at this
period of his life, as he was now fifty-eight years old, with all his
sagacity, practical good sense, activity of observation, and great ex-
perience, is of itself of great weight. His arguments are, besides,
of great cogency. It is to be observed that he vindicates the system

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 341

on the ground of its absolute necessity, as the means of a supply of
a circulating medium. The existence of such necessity is then the
main question. The suppression of the paper currency in Massa-
chusetts, in 1747, in pursuance of Hutchinson's proposal, and its
suppression in the other New England provinces, afford very strong
grounds of argument against the existence of any such necessity,
notwithstanding the difference in the circumstances of the middle
provinces, from those of the New England provinces, pointed out by
Franklin in this paper ; since, after all, the cause imagined for this
necessity, namely, the excessive importations, the constantly out-
standing balance due to the British merchants, and the consequent
remittances of specie, existed no less in New England than in the
middle provinces. It may be gravely doubted whether the operation
of these causes was so different in the different provinces as Frank-
lin supposes.

The paper-money system was vindicated upon two distinct
grounds; the one, the necessity of a currency, and the impossibility of
keeping a sufficient supply of gold and silver in the country, and so,
as Dr. Franklin said before the committee of the House of Commons,
if you cannot have what you would prefer, the expediency of taking
the next best thing ; the other, the absolute advantages of this
currency, even over the precious metals. One of these advantages .
was the revenue derived to the government from it. Thus Pownall,
after describing the situation of the colonies, says, " In a country,
under such circumstances, money lent to settlers upon interest
creates money. Paper money thus lent upon interest will create
gold and silver in principal, while the interest becomes a reserve that
pays the charges of government. This currency is the true Pactolian
stream, which converts all into gold that is washed by it. It is upon
this principle, that the wisdom and virtue of the Assembly of Penn-
sylvania established, under the sanction of government, an office for
the emission of paper money by loan." — POWNALL'S Administration
of the Colonies, 4th ed. p. 186. — W. PHILLIPS.

IN the Report of the Board of Trade, dated February
9th, 1764, the following reasons are given for restraining
the emission of paper bills of credit in America, as a
legal tender.

1. "That it carries the gold and silver out of the

cc*

342 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

province, and so ruins the country ; as experience has
showily in every colony where it has been practised in
any great degree.

2. "That the merchants trading to America have
suffered and lost by it.

3. " That the restriction has had a beneficial effect in
New England.

4. " That every medium of trade should have an in-
trinsic value, which paper money has not. Gold and
silver are therefore the fittest for this medium, as they
are an equivalent, which paper never can be.

5. " That debtors, in the Assemblies, make paper
money with fraudulent views.

6. " That in the middle colonies, where the credit of
the paper money has been best supported, the bills
have never kept to their nominal value in circulation,
but have constantly depreciated to a certain degree,
whenever the quantity has been increased."

To consider these reasons in their order ; the first is,
First. " That paper money carries the gold and silver
out of the province, and so ruins the country ; as expe-
rience has shown, in every colony where it has been
practised in any great degree." This opinion of its
ruining the country seems to be merely speculative, or
not otherwise founded than upon misinformation in the
matter of fact. The truth is, that, the balance of their
trade with Britain being greatly against them, the gold
and silver is drawn out to pay that balance ; and then
the necessity of some medium of trade has induced the
making of paper money, which could not be carried
away. Thus, if carrying out all the gold and silver
ruins a country, every colony was ruined before it made
paper money. But, far from being ruined by it, the
colonies that have made use of paper money have
been, and are, all in a thriving condition. The debt

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 343

indeed to Britain has increased, because their numbers,
and of course their trade, have increased ; for, all trade
having always a proportion of debt outstanding, which
is paid in its turn, while fresh debt is contracted, the
proportion of debt naturally increases as the trade
increases ; but the improvement and increase of estates
in the colonies has been in a greater proportion than
their debt.

New England, particularly, in 1696 (about the time
they began the use of paper money), had, in all its four
provinces, but one hundred and thirty churches or con-
gregations ; in 1 760 they were five hundred and thirty.
The number of farms and buildings there is increased
in proportion to the numbers of people ; and the goods
exported to them from England in 1750, before the
restraint took place, were near five times as much as
before they had paper money. Pennsylvania, before it
made any paper money, was totally stript of its gold
and silver ; though they had, from time to time, like the
neighbouring colonies, agreed to take gold and silver
coins at higher and higher nominal values, in hopes of
drawing money into, and retaining it for the internal
uses of, the province. During that weak practice, silver
got up by degrees to 8s. 9d. per ounce, and English
crowns were called six, seven, and eight shilling pieces,
long before paper money was made. But this practice
of increasing the denomination was found not to answer
the end. The balance of trade carried out the gold
and silver as fast as it was brought in, the merchants
raising the price of their goods in proportion to the in-
creased denomination of the money. The difficulties
for want of cash were accordingly very great, the chief
part of the trade being carried on by the extremely
inconvenient method of barter; when, in 1723, paper
money was first made there, which gave new life to

344 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

business, promoted greatly the settlement of new lands,
(by lending small sums to beginners on easy interest, to
be repaid by instalments,) whereby the province has so
greatly increased in inhabitants, that the export from
hence thither is now more than tenfold what it then
was ; and, by their trade with foreign colonies, they
have been able to obtain great quantities of gold and
silver, to remit hither in return for the manufactures of
this country. New York and New Jersey have also
increased greatly during the same period, with the use
of paper money ; so that it does not appear to be of the
ruinous nature ascribed to it. And, if the inhabitants of
those countries are glad to have the use of paper among
themselves, that they may thereby be enabled to spare,
for remittances hither, the gold and silver they obtain
by their commerce with foreigners, one would expect
that no objection against their parting with it could arise
here, in the country that receives it.

The second reason is, " That the merchants trading
to America have suffered and lost by the paper money."
This may have been the case in particular instances, at
particular times and places ; as in South Carolina
about fifty-eight years since, when the colony was
thought .in danger of being destroyed by the Indians
and Spaniards ; and the British merchants, in fear of
losing their whole effects there, called precipitately for
remittances ; and the inhabitants, to get something
lodged in safe countries, gave any price in paper money
for bills of exchange ; whereby the paper, as compared
with bills, or with produce, or other effects fit for ex-
portation, was suddenly and greatly depreciated.

The unsettled state of government for a long time in
that province had also its share in depreciating its bills.
But since that danger blew over, and the colony has
been in the hands of the crown, their currency became

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 345

fixed, and has so remained to this day. Also in New
England, when much greater quantities were issued
than were necessary for a medium of trade, to defray
the expedition against Louisburg ; and during the last
war in Virginia and North Carolina, when great sums
were issued to pay the colony troops, and the war
made tobacco a poorer remittance, from the higher price
of freight and insurance ; in these cases, the merchants
trading to those colonies may sometimes have suffered
by the sudden and unforeseen rise of exchange. By
slow and gradual rises they seldom suffer; the goods
being sold at proportionable prices. But war is a com-
mon calamity hi all countries, and the merchants that
deal with them cannot expect to avoid a share of the
losses it sometimes occasions, by affecting public credit.
It is hoped, however, that the profits of their subsequent
commerce with those colonies may have made them
some reparation. And the merchants trading to the
middle colonies (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl-
vania) have never suffered by any rise of exchange ; it
having ever been a constant rule there to consider
British debts as payable in Britain, and not to be dis-
charged but by as much paper (whatever might be the
rate of exchange) as would purchase a bill for the full
sterling sum. On the contrary, the merchants have
been great gainers by the use of paper money in those
colonies; as it enabled them to send much greater
quantities of goods, and the purchasers to pay more
punctually for them. And the people there make no
complaint of any injury done them by paper money,
with a legal tender ; they are sensible of its benefits ;
and petition to have it so allowed.

The third reason is, " That the restriction has had a
beneficial effect in New England." Particular circum-
stances in the New England colonies made paper

VOL. n. 44

346 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

money less necessary and less convenient to them.
They have great and valuable fisheries of whale and
cod, by which large remittances can be made. They
are four distinct governments ; but, having much mutual
intercourse of dealings, the money of each used to pass
current in all. But the whole of this common currency,
not being under one common direction, was not so
easily kept within due bounds ; the prudent reserve of
one colony in its emissions being rendered useless by
excess in another. The Massachusetts therefore were
not dissatisfied with the restraint, as it restrained their
neighbours as well as themselves ; and perhaps they do
not desire to have the act repealed. They have not yet
felt much inconvenience from it ; as they were enabled
to abolish their paper currency by a large sum in silver
from Britain, to reimburse their expenses in taking
Louisburg; which, with the gold brought from Portu-
gal, by means of their fish, kept them supplied with a
currency, till the late war furnished them and all
America with bills of exchange, so that little cash was
needed for remittance. Their fisheries, too, furnish
them with remittances through Spain and Portugal to
England ; which enables them the more easily to retain
gold and silver in their country. The middle Colonies
have not this advantage ; nor have they tobacco, which,
in Virginia and Maryland, answers the same purpose.
When colonies are so different in their circumstances, a
regulation, that is not inconvenient to one or a few, may
be very much so to the rest. But the pay is now be-
come so indifferent in New England, at least in some of
its provinces, through the want of currency, that the
trade thither is at present under great discouragement.

The fourth reason is, " That every medium of trade
should have an intrinsic value, which paper money has
not. Gold and silver are therefore the fittest for this

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 347

medium, as they are an equivalent, which paper never
can be." However fit a particular thing may be for a
particular purpose, wherever that thing is not to be had,
or not to be had in sufficient quantity, it becomes
necessary to use something else, the fittest that can be
got in lieu of it. Gold and silver are not the produce
of North America, which has no mines ; and that which
is brought thither cannot be kept there in sufficient
quantity for a currency. Britain, an independent, great
state, when its inhabitants grow too fond of the expen-
sive luxuries of foreign countries, that draw away its
money, can, and frequently does, make laws to dis-
courage or prohibit such importations ; and, by that
means, can retain its cash.

The colonies are dependent governments ; and their
people, having naturally great respect for the sovereign
country, and being thence immoderately fond of its
modes, manufactures, and superfluities, cannot be re-
strained from purchasing them by any province law;
because such law, if made, would immediately be
repealed here, as prejudicial to the trade and interest of
Britain. It seems hard, therefore, to draw all their
real money from them, and then refuse them the poor
privilege of using paper instead of it. Bank bills and
bankers' notes are daily used here as a medium of trade,
and in large dealings perhaps the greater part is trans-
acted by their means ; and yet they have no intrinsic
value, but rest on the credit of those that issue them, as
paper bills in the colonies do on the credit of the
respective governments there. Their being payable in
cash, upon sight, by the drawer, is indeed a circum-
stance that cannot attend the colony bills, for the rea-
sons just above mentioned, their cash being drawn from
them by the British trade. But the legal tender, being
substituted in its place, is rather a greater advantage to

348 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

the possessor ; since he need not be at the trouble of
going to a particular bank or banker to demand the
money, finding (wherever he has occasion to lay out
money in the province) a person that is obliged to take
the bills. So that, even out of the province, the knowl-
edge that every man within that province, is obliged to
take its money, gives the bills a credit among its neigh-
bours, nearly equal to what they have at home. And,
were it not for the laws here [in England], that restrain
or prohibit as much as possible all losing trades, the
cash of this country would soon be exported. Every
merchant, who had occasion to remit it, would run to the
bank with all its bills that came into his hands, and take
out his part of its treasure for that purpose ; so that, in
a short time, it would be no more able to pay bills in
money upon sight, than it is now hi the power of a
colony treasury so to do. And, if government afterwards
should have occasion for the credit of the bank, it must
of necessity make its bills a legal tender ; funding them
however on taxes, by which they may in time be paid
off; as has been the general practice in the colonies.

At this very time even the silver money in England
is obliged to the legal tender for part of its value ; that
part which is the difference between its real weight and
its denomination. Great part of the shillings and six-
pences now current are, by wearing, become five, ten,
twenty, and some of the sixpences even fifty per cent
too light. For this difference between the real and the
nominal, you have no intrinsic value ; you have not so
much as paper, you have nothing. It is the legal ten-
der, with the knowledge that it can easily be repass-
ed for the same value, that makes three-pennyworth
of silver pass for sixpence. Gold and silver have un-
doubtedly some properties that give them a fitness
above paper as a medium of exchange ; particularly

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 349

their universal estimation ; especially in cases where a
country has occasion to carry its money abroad, either
as a stock to trade with, or to purchase allies and
foreign succours ; otherwise that very universal estima-
tion is an inconvenience which paper money is free
from ; since it tends to deprive a country of even the
quantity of currency that should be retained as a neces-
sary instrument of its internal commerce, and obliges it
to be continually on its guard in making and executing,
at great expense, the laws that are to prevent the trade
which exports it.

Paper money well funded has another great advan-
tage over gold and silver ; its lightness of carriage, and
the little room that is occupied by a great sum ; where-
by it is capable of being more easily and more safely,
because more privately, conveyed from place to place.
Gold and silver are not intrinsically of equal value with
iron, a metal, in itself, capable of many more beneficial
uses to mankind. Their value rests chiefly in the esti-
mation they happen to be in among the generality of
nations, and the credit given to the opinion that that
estimation will continue. Otherwise a pound of gold
would not be a real equivalent for even a bushel of
wheat. Any other well-founded credit is as much an
equivalent as gold and silver ; and in some cases more
so, or it would not be preferred by commercial people
in different countries. Not to mention again our own
bank bills, Holland, which understands the value of
cash as well as any people in the world, would never
part with gold and silver for credit (as they do when
they put it into their bank, from whence little of it is
ever afterwards drawn out), * if they did not think and
find the credit a full equivalent.

* Perhaps Dr. Franklin had not, at this time, read what Sir James
Stewart says of the Amsterdam bank re-issuing its money. — B. V.

VOL. II. »I>

350 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

The fifth reason is, " That debtors, in the Assemblies,
make paper money with fraudulent views" This is
often said by the adversaries of paper money, and, if it
has been the case hi any particular colony, that colony
should, on proof of the fact, be duly punished. This,
however, would be no reason for punishing other col-
onies, who have not so abused their legislative pow-
ers. To deprive all the colonies of the convenience of
paper money, because it has been charged on some of
them, that they have made it an instrument of fraud, is
as if all the India, bank, and other stocks and trading
companies were to be abolished, because there have
been, once in an age, Mississippi and South Sea
schemes and bubbles.

The sixth and last reason is, " That in the middle
colonies, where the paper money has been best support-
ed, the bills have never kept to their nominal value in
circulation ; but have constantly depreciated to a certain
degree, whenever the quantity has been increased." If
the rising of the value of any particular commodity,
wanted for exportation, is to be considered as a depre-
ciation of the values of whatever remains in the country ;
then the rising of silver above paper to that height of
additional value, which its capability of exportation only
gave it, may be called a depreciation of the paper.
Even here, as bullion has been wanted or not wanted
for exportation, its price has varied from 5s. 2d. to 5s.
8d. per ounce. This is near ten per cent. But was it
ever said or thought on such an occasion, that all the
bank bills, and all the coined silver, and all the gold in
the kingdom, were depreciated ten per cent ? Coined
silver is now wanted here for change, and one per cent
is given for it by some bankers ; are gold and bank
notes therefore depreciated one per cent ?

The fact in the middle colonies is really this. On the
emission of the first paper money, a difference soon arose

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 351

between that and silver; the latter having a property
the former had not, a property always in demand in the
colonies, to wit, its being fit for a remittance. This
property having soon found its value by the merchants
bidding on one another for it, and a dollar thereby
coming to be rated at eight shillings in paper money of
New York, and 7s. 6d. in paper of Pennsylvania, it
has continued uniformly at those rates in both provinces
now near forty years, without any variation upon new
emissions ; though in Pennsylvania the paper currency
has at times increased from ,£1 5,000 the first sum, to
£600,000, or near it. Nor has any alteration been
occasioned, by the paper money, in the price of the
necessaries of life, when compared with silver. They
have been for the greatest part of the time no higher
than before it was emitted ; varying only by plenty and
scarcity, according to the seasons, or by a less or great-
er foreign demand. It has indeed been usual, with the
adversaries of a paper currency, to call every rise of
exchange with London a depreciation of the paper;
but this notion appears to be by no means just ; for, if
the paper purchases every thing but bills of exchange
at the former rate, and these bills are not above one-
tenth of what is employed in purchases, then it may
be more properly and truly said, that the exchange has
risen, than that the paper has depreciated. And, as a
proof of this, it is a certain fact, that, whenever in those
colonies bills of exchange have been dearer, the pur-
chaser has been constantly obliged to give more in
silver, as well as in paper, for them ; the silver having
gone hand in hand with the paper, at the rate above
mentioned ; and therefore it might as well have been
said, that the silver was depreciated.

There have been several different schemes for fur-
nishing the colonies with paper money, that should not
be a legal tender, viz.

352 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

1. To form a bank, in imitation of the Bank of Eng-
land, with a sufficient stock of cash to pay the bills on
sight.

This has been often proposed, but appears impracti-
cable, under the present circumstances of the colony
trade ; which, as is said above, draws all the cash to
Britain, and would soon strip the bank.

2. To raise a fund by some yearly tax, securely
lodged in the Bank of England as it arises, which should
(during the term of years for which the paper bills are
to be current) accumulate to a sum sufficient to discharge
them all at their original value.

This has been tried in Maryland; and the bills so
funded were issued without being made a general legal
tender. The event was, that, as notes payable in time
are naturally subject to a discount proportioned to the
time, so these bills fell at the beginning of the term so
low, as that twenty pounds of them became worth no
more than twelve pounds in Pennsylvania, the next
neighbouring province ; though both had been struck
near the same time, at the same nominal value, but the
latter was supported by the general legal tender. The
Maryland bills, however, began to rise as the term
shortened, and towards the end recovered their full
value. But, as a depreciating currency injures creditors,
this injured debtors ; and, by its continually changing
value, appears unfit for the purpose of money, which
should be as fixed as possible in its own value ; because
it is to be the measure of the value of other things.

3. To make the bills carry an interest sufficient to
support their value.

This too has been tried in some of the New England
colonies ; but great inconvenience was found to attend
it. The bills, to fit them for a currency, are made of
various denominations ; and some very low, for the sake
of change; there are of them from <£10 down to 3d.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 353

When they first come abroad, they pass easily, and
answer the purpose well enough for a few months ; but,
as soon as the interest becomes worth computing, the
calculation of it on every little bill, in a sum between the
dealer and his customers in shops, warehouses, and
markets, takes up much time, to the great hinderance of
business. This evil, however, soon gave place to a
worse ; for the bills were in a short time gathered up
and hoarded; it being a very tempting advantage to
have money bearing interest, and the principal all the
while in a man's power, ready for bargains that may
offer ; which money out on mortgage is not. By this
means numbers of people became usurers with small
sums, who could not have found persons to take such
sums of them upon interest, giving good security;
and would therefore not have thought of it ; but would
rather have employed the money hi some business, if it
had been money of the common kind. Thus trade,
instead of being increased by such bills, is diminished ;
and, by their being shut up in chests, the very end of
making them (viz. to furnish a medium of commerce)
is in a great measure, if not totally, defeated. *

* I understand that Dr. Franklin is the friend who assisted Governor
Pownall in drawing up a plan for a general paper currency for America,
to be established by the British government. See P OWN ALL'S Administra-
tion of the. Colonies, 5th edition, pp. 199, 208. — B. V.

The paper money first issued by the colonial Assemblies was made a
legal tender. The excessive issues in some of the colonies caused a great
depreciation in the value of the bills, and thus produced mischievous con-
sequences. To remedy the evil, an act of Parliament was passed, pro-
hibiting the colonies from issuing any more paper money, which should
be a legal tender. At the same time that this act removed one difficulty, it
raised up another. In the fluctuating state of things in the colonies, the
credit of the bills could not be sustained in any degree, unless the people
were required to take them at their actual value. It then became a
matter of importance, that Parliament should provide some means for
giving stability to a paper currency in the colonies. Governor Pownall,

VOL. II. 45 DD*

354 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

On the whole, no method has hitherto been formed
to establish a medium of trade, in lieu of money, equal,
in all its advantages, to bills of credit, funded on suffi-
cient taxes for discharging it, or on land security of
double the value for repaying it at the end of the term,
and in the mean time made a GENERAL LEGAL TENDER.
The experience of now near half a century in the middle
colonies, has convinced them of it among themselves,
by the great increase of their settlements, numbers,
buildings, improvements, agriculture, shipping, and com-
merce. And the same experience has satisfied the
British merchants, who trade thither, that it has been
greatly useful to them, and not in a single instance pre-
judicial.

It is therefore hoped, that, securing the full discharge
of British debts, which are payable here, and in* all jus-
tice and reason ought to be fully discharged here, in
sterling money, the restraint on the legal tender within
the colonies will be taken off; at least for those colo-
nies that desire it, and where the merchants trading to
them make no objection to it.

in conjunction with Dr. Franklin, proposed a plan for this object. Speak-
ing of this proposal, Governor Pownall says. " So far am I from assuming
any merit in the invention or framing of it, that I desire it may be
considered as founded on what hath been actually practised in Penn-
sylvania, by the good sense and good policy of the Assembly of that pro-
vince, with success and with benefit to the public ; that the particular
proposal, as it is now formed, and applied to the present exigencies of
America and Great Britain, was drawn up some years ago, in conjunction
with a friend of mine, and of the colonies. It was, by us, jointly proposed
to government, under successive administrations, in the years 1764, 1765,
1766, during which time the publication was suspended."

The principal outlines of this plan were, that bills of credit to a certain
amount should be printed in England, for the use of the colonies; that a
loan-office should be erected in each colony to issue bills, take securities,
and receive the payments ; that the bills should be issued for ten years,
bearing interest at five per cent, one tenth part of the sum borrowed to be
paid annually, with the interest; and that they should be a legal tender. —
EDITOR.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 355

ON THE
PRICE OF CORN, AND MANAGEMENT OF THE POOR.

The following extracts from a letter, signed COLUMJELLA, and ad-
dressed to the editors of The Repository for select Papers on Ag-
riculture, Arts, and Manufactures (Vol. I. p. 352), will serve the
purpose of preparing those who read it, for entering upon this paper.
" GENTLEMEN,

" There is now publishing in France a periodical work, called
Ephemerides du Ciioyen, in which several points, interesting to
those concerned in agriculture, are from time to time discussed by
some able hands. In looking over one of the volumes of this work a
few days ago, I found a little piece written by one of our countrymen,
and which our vigilant neighbours had taken from The London
Chronicle in 1766. The author is a gentleman well known to
every man of letters in Europe ; and perhaps there is none, in this
age, to whom mankind in general are more indebted. That this
piece may not be lost to our own country, I beg you will give it a
place in your Repository. It was written in favor of the farmers,
when they suffered so much abuse in our public papers, and were
also plundered by the mob in many places." — B. V.

It is to be kept in mind that this paper, and the one which follows
it, were written in England. — EDITOR.

TO MESSIEURS THE PUBLIC.

I am one of that class of people, that feeds you all,
and at present is abused by you all ; in short I am a
farmer.

By your newspapers we are told, that God had sent
a very short harvest to some other countries of Europe.
I thought this might be in favor of Old England ; and
that now we should get a good price for our grain,
which would bring millions among us, and make us
flow in money ; that to be sure is scarce enough.

356 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

But the wisdom of government forbade the export-
ation.*

" Well, " says I, " then we must be content with the
market price at home."

"No;" say my lords the mob, "you sha'nt have that.
Bring your corn to market if you dare ; we '11 sell it for
you for less money, or take it for nothing. "

Being thus attacked by both ends of the constitution,
the head and tail of government, what am I to do 1

Must I keep my corn in the barn, to feed and in-
crease the breed of rats ? Be it so ; they cannot be
less thankful than those I have been used to feed.

Are we farmers the only people to be grudged the
profits of our honest labor ? And why ? One of the
late scribblers against us gives a bill of fare of the pro-
visions at my daughter's wedding, and proclaims to all
the world, that we had the insolence to eat beef and
pudding ! Has he not read the precept in the good
Book, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that
treadeth out the corn ; or does he think us less worthy
of good living than our oxen ?

" O, but the manufacturers ! the manufacturers ! they
are to be favored, and they must have bread at a cheap
rate!"

Hark ye, Mr. Oaf; the farmers live splendidly, you
say. And pray, would you have them hoard the money
they get ? Their fine clothes and furniture, do they
make them themselves, or for one another, and so keep
the money among them ? Or do they employ these
your darling manufacturers, and so scatter it again all
over the nation ?

* It is not necessary to repeat in what degree Dr. Franklin respected
the ministers to whom he alludes. The embargo upon corn was but a
single measure, which, it is enough to say, a host of politicians thought
well advised, but ill defended. Of the great and honorable services of
the Earl of Chatham to his country, Dr. Franklin has borne the amplest
testimony. — B. V.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 357

The wool would produce me a better price, if it were
suffered to go to foreign markets ; but that, Messieurs
the Public, your laws will not permit. It must be kept
all at home, that our dear manufacturers may have it
the cheaper. And then, having yourselves thus lessen-
ed our encouragement for raising sheep, you curse us
for the scarcity of mutton !

I have heard my grandfather say, that the farmers
submitted to the prohibition on the exportation of wool,
being made to expect and believe, that, when the manu-
facturer bought his wool cheaper, they should also have
their cloth cheaper. But the deuce a bit. It has been
growing dearer and dearer from that day to this. How
so ? Why, truly, the cloth is exported ; and that keeps
up the price.

Now, if it be a good principle, that the exportation of
a commodity is to be restrained, that so our people at
home may have it the cheaper, stick to that principle,
and go thorough-stitch with it. Prohibit the exportation
of your cloth, your leather, and shoes, your iron ware,
and your manufactures of all sorts, to make them all
cheaper at home. And cheap enough they will be, I
will warrant you ; till people leave off making them.

Some folks seem to think they ought never to be
easy till England becomes another Lubberland, where it
is fancied that streets are paved with penny-rolls, the
houses tiled with pancakes, and chickens, ready roasted,
cry, " Come eat me."

I say, when you are sure you have got a good princi-
ple, stick to it, and carry it through. I hear it is said,
that though it was necessary and right for the ministry
to advise a prohibition of the exportation of corn, yet it
was contranj to law ; and also, that though it was contrary
to law for the mob to obstruct wagons, yet it was ne-
cessary and right. Just the same thing to a tittle. Now

358 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

they tell me, an act of indemnity ought to pass in favor
of the ministry, to secure them from the consequences
of having acted illegally. If so, pass another in favor
of the mob. Others say, some of the mob ought to be
hanged, by way of example. If so, — but I say no more
than I have said before, when you are sure that you have
a good principle, go through with it.

You say, poor laborers cannot afford to buy bread
at a high price, unless they had higher wages. Possi-
bly. But how shall we farmers be able to afford our
laborers higher wages, if you will not allow us to get,
when we might have it, a higher price for our corn 1

By all that I can learn, we should at least have had a
guinea a quarter more, if the exportation had been al-
lowed. And this money England would have got from
foreigners.

But, it seems, we farmers must take so much less,
that the poor may have it so much cheaper.

This operates, then, as a tax for the maintenance of
the poor. A very good thing you will say. But I ask,
Why a partial tax ? why laid on us farmers only ? If it
be a good thing, pray, Messieurs the Public, take your
share df it, by indemnifying us a little out of your pub-
lic treasury. In doing a good thing, there is both honor
and pleasure ; you are welcome to your share of both.

For my own part, I am not so well satisfied of the
goodness of this thing. I am for doing good to the
poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think
the best way of doing good to the poor, is, not making
them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out
of it. In my youth, I travelled much, and I observed
hi different countries, that the more public provisions
were made for the poor, the less they provided for
themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the
contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 359

for themselves, and became richer. There is no country
in the world where so many provisions are establish-
ed for them ; so many hospitals to receive them when
they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by vol-
untary charities ; so many almshouses for the aged of
both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by
the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the
support of the poor. Under all these obligations, are
our poor modest, humble, and thankful 1 And do they
use their best endeavours to maintain themselves, and
lighten our shoulders of this burthen ? On the contra-
ry I affirm, that there is no country in the world
which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and
insolent The day you passed that act, you took away
from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements
to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a
dependence on somewhat else than a careful accumula-
tion during youth and health, for support in age or

sickness.

In short, you offered a premium for the encourage-
ment of idleness, and you should not now wonder, that
it has had its effect in the increase of poverty. Repeal
that law, and you will soon see a change in their man-
ners Saint Monday and Saint Tuesday will soon
cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though
one of the old commandments long treated as out
date will acrain be looked upon as a respectable precept ;
industry will increase, and with it plenty among the
lower people; their circumstances will mend, and mor
wffl be done for their happiness by inuring them to pro-
vide for themselves, than could be done by dividing a
your estates among them.

Excuse me, Messieurs the Public, if, upon this inter-
esting subject, I put you to the trouble of reading i
little Df my nonsense. I am sure I have lately read a

360 FRANKLIN'S WR TINGS.

great deal of yours, and therefore from you (at least
from those of you who are writers) I deserve a little
indulgence.

I am yours, &.c. ARATOR.*

* This is an admirably written paper. The views taken of prohibitions
of the exportation of particular articles are just, and at present not ques-
tioned by intelligent legislators and political economists.

This paper was published nine years before the " Wealth of Nations"
and takes the same view of the English poor-laws that is taken in that
work. It has prevailed to the present time among the disciples of Adam
Smith, by some of whom, particularly Mr. Malthus, it is maintained, that
population must be starved down to the limits of the means of subsist-
ence, the natural inference from their reasoning being, that, as this fate im-
pends over the human race at all places and times, it is in vain to struggle
against it by public or private charity. This is a result from which the
characteristic philanthropy of Franklin would have revolted. He certain-
ly would not have maintained that the resourceless sick, maimed, poor,
and those destitute of the discretion requisite to support themselves,
should, like aged persons among the Chinese and among some barbarous
nations, be abandoned to perish of want. And if he did not maintain this
doctrine, the only course left is to make some provision for them, and cer-
tainly such provision is more equitably made by an assessment upon the
community, according to the means of each member, than in any other
way. The result would be a provision by law for enabling and compel-
ling the poor to support themselves as far as practicable, and making up
the deficiency for a moderate and meagre subsistence by an equitable
assessment upon the other members of the community. The evils of
mendicity gave rise to the poor-laws ; the ill-judged provisions, but much
more the abuses in the administration, of those laws have been a pre-
tence for rushing back to the former extreme of mendicity, and the mis-
erable spectacle of multitudes perishing of want. But the sentiments
of humanity, no less than the morals and manners of well-regulated
civil society, forbid this. — W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 361

ON SMUGGLING, AND ITS VARIOUS SPECIES.

This letter is extracted from The London Clironide, for Novem-
ber 24th, 1767, and is addressed to the printer of that newspaper.
— B. V.

SIR,

There are many people that would be thought, and
even think themselves, honest men, who fail neverthe-
less in particular points of honesty ; deviating from that
character sometimes by the prevalence of mode or cus-
tom, and sometimes through mere inattention ; so that
their honesty is partial only, and not general or universal.
Thus one, who would scorn to oven-each you in a
bargain, shall make no scruple of tricking you a little
now and then at cards; another, that plays with the
utmost fairness, shall with great freedom cheat you in
the sale of a horse. But there is no kind of dishon-
esty, into which otherwise good people more easily and
frequently fall, than that of defrauding government of
its revenues by smuggling when they have an opportu-
nity, or encouraging smugglers by buying their goods.

I fell into these reflections the other day, on hearing
two gentlemen of reputation discoursing about a small
estate, which one of them was inclined to sell, and the
other to buy ; when the seller, in recommending the
place, remarked, that its situation was very advanta-
geous on this account, that, being on the sea-coast in a
smuggling country, one had frequent opportunities of
buying many of the expensive articles used in a family
(such as tea, coffee, chocolate, brandy, wines, cambrics,
Brussels laces, French silks, and all kinds of India
goods,) twenty, thirty, and in some articles fifty per
cent cheaper than they could be had in the more interi-

VOL. II. 46 EE

362 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

or parts, of traders that paid duty. The other honest
gentleman allowed this to be an advantage, but insisted,
that the seller, in the advanced price he demanded on
that account, rated the advantage much above its value.
And neither of them seemed to think dealing with
smugglers a practice, that an honest man (provided he
got his goods cheap) had the least reason to be asham-
ed of.

At a time when the load of our public debt, and the
heavy expense of maintaining our fleets and armies to
be ready for our defence on occasion, make it necessa-
ry, not only to continue old taxes, but often to look out
for new ones, perhaps it may not be unuseful to state
this matter in a light, that few seem to have considered
it in.

The people of Great Britain, under the happy consti-
tution of this country, have a privilege few other coun-
tries enjoy, that of choosing a third branch of the legis-
lature, which branch has alone the power of regulating
their taxes. Now, whenever the government finds it
necessary for the common benefit, advantage, and safety
of the nation, for the security of our liberties, property,
religion, and every thing that is dear to us, that certain
sums shall be yearly raised by taxes, duties, &c., and
paid into the public treasury, thence to be dispensed by
government for those purposes ; ought not every honest
man freely and willingly to pay his just proportion of
this necessary expense 1 Can he possibly preserve a
right to that character, if, by fraud, stratagem, or contriv-
ance, he avoids that payment in whole or in part.

What should we think of a companion, who, having
supped with his friends at a tavern, and partaken equally
of the joys of the evening with the rest of us, would
nevertheless contrive by some artifice to shift his share
of the reckoning upon others, in order to, go off
scotfree ? If a man who practised this would, when

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 363

detected, be deemed and called a scoundrel, what ought
he to be called, who can enjoy all the inestimable bene-
fits of public society, and yet by smuggling, or dealing
with smugglers, contrive to evade paying his just share
of the expense, as settled by his own representatives in
Parliament, and wrongfully throw it upon his honester
and perhaps much poorer neighbours ? He wrill perhaps
be ready to tell me, that he does not wrong his neigh-
bours ; he scorns the imputation ; he only cheats the King
a little, who is very able to bear it. This, however, is a
mistake. The public treasure is the treasure of the
nation, to be applied to national purposes. And when
a duty is laid for a particular public and necessary pur-
pose, if, through smuggling, that duty falls short of rais-
ing the sum required, and other duties must therefore
be laid to make up the deficiency, all the additional sum
laid by the new duties and paid by other people, though
it should amount to no more than a half-penny or a
farthing per head, is so much actually picked out of the
pockets of those other people by the smugglers and
their abettors and encouragers. Are they then any
better or other than pickpockets ? And what mean,
lowr, rascally pickpockets must those be, that can pick
pockets for half-pence and for farthings ?

I would not, however, be supposed to allow, in what
I have just said, that cheating the King is a less offence
against honesty, than cheating the public. The King
and the public, in this case, are different names for the
same thing ; but, if we consider the King distinctly, it
will not lessen the crime ; it is no justification of a rob-
bery, that the person robbed was rich and able to bear
it. The King has as much right to justice as the
meanest of his subjects ; and, as he is truly the common
father of his people, those that rob him fall under the

364 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Scripture woe, pronounced against the son that robbeth
his father, and saith it is no sin.

Mean as this practice is, do we not daily see people
of character and fortune engaged in it for trifling advan-
tages to themselves ? Is any lady ashamed to request
of a gentleman of her acquaintance, that when he re-
turns from abroad, he would smuggle her home a piece
of silk or lace from France or Flanders ? Is any gen-
tleman ashamed to undertake and execute the com-
mission ? Not in the least. They will talk of it freely,
even before others whose pockets they are thus contriv-
ing to pick by this piece of knavery.

Among other branches of the revenue, that of the post-
office is, by the late law, appropriated to the discharge
of our public debt, to defray the expenses of the state.
None but members of Parliament, and a few public
officers, have now a right to avoid, by a frank, the pay-
ment of postage. When any letter, not written by
them or on their business, is franked by any of them, it
is a hurt to the revenue, an injury which they must now
take the pains to conceal by writing the whole super-
scription themselves. And yet such is our insensibility
to justice in this particular, that nothing is more common
than to see, even in reputable company, a very honest
gentleman or lady declare his or her intention to cheat
the nation of three pence by a frank, and without blush-
ing apply to one of the very legislators themselves, with
a modest request, that he would be pleased to become
an accomplice in the crime, and assist in the perpetration.

There are those who by these practices take a great
deal in a year out of the public purse, and put the mon-
ey into their own private pockets. If, passing through a
room where public treasure is deposited, a man takes
the opportunity of clandestinely pocketing and carrying
off a guinea, is he not truly and properly a thief ? And

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 365

if another evades paying into the treasury a guinea he
ought to pay in, and applies it to his own use, when he
knows it belongs to the public as much as that which
has been paid in, what difference is there in the nature
of the crime, or the baseness of committing it ?

Some laws make the receiving of stolen goods equal-
ly penal with stealing, and upon this principle, that if
there were no receivers, there would be few thieves.
Our proverb too says truly, that the receiver is as bad
as the thief. By the same reasoning, as there would be
few smugglers, if there were none who knowingly en-
couraged them by buying their goods, we may say, that
the encouragers of smuggling are as bad as the smug-
glers ; and that, as smugglers are a kind of thieves,
both equally deserve the punishment of thievery.

In this view of wronging the revenue, what must we
think of those who can evade paying for their wheels *
and their plate, in defiance of law and justice, and yet
declaim against corruption and peculation, as if their
own hands and hearts were pure and unsullied ? The
Americans offend us grievously, when, contrary to our
laws, they smuggle goods into their own country ; and
yet they had no hand in making those laws. I do not
however pretend from thence to justify them. But I
think the offence much greater in those, who either di-
rectly or indirectly have been concerned in making the
very laws they break. And when I hear them exclaim-
ing against the Americans, and for every little infringe-
ment on the acts of trade, or obstruction given by a petty
mob to an officer of our customs in that country, calling
for vengeance against the whole people as REBELS and
TRAITORS, I cannot help thinking there are still those
in the world who car see a mote in their brother's eye,

* Alluding to the British taxes on carriage-wheels and on plate. —

DOANE.

EE*

366 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

while they do not discern a beam in their oivn ; and that
the old saying is as true now as ever it was, One man
may better steal a horse, than another look over the hedge.

B. F.

NOTE
RESPECTING TRADE AND MANUFACTURES.

London, July 7, 1767.

SUPPOSE a country, X, with three manufactures, as
doth, silk, iron, supplying three other countries, A, B,
C, but is desirous of increasing the vent, and raising the
price of cloth in favor of her own clothiers.

In order to this, she forbids the importation of foreign
cloth from A.

A, in return, forbids silks from X.

Then the silk-workers complain of a decay of trade.
And X, to content them, forbids silks from B.

B, in return, forbids iron ware from X.
Then the iron-workers complain of decay.
And X forbids the importation of iron from C.

C, in return, forbids cloth from X.
What is got by all these prohibitions ?

Answer. — All four find their common stock of the
enjoyments and conveniences of life diminished. >

B. F.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 367

ON THE LABORING POOR.

Communicated to the Editor of a Newspaper, April, 1768.

SIR,

I have met with much invective in the papers, tor
these two years past, against the hard-heartedness of
the rich, and much complaint of the great oppressions
suffered in this country by the laboring poor. Will you
admit a word or two on the other side of the question 1
I do not propose to be an advocate for oppression or
oppressors. But when I see that the poor are, by such
writings, exasperated against the rich, and excited to
insurrections, by which much mischief is done, and some
forfeit their lives, I could wish the true state of things
were better understood, the poor not made by these
busy writers more uneasy and unhappy than their
situation subjects them to be, and the nation not
brought into disrepute among foreigners, by public
groundless accusations of ourselves, as if the rich in
England had no compassion for the poor, and English-
men wanted common humanity.

In justice, then, to this country, give me leave to
remark, that the condition of the poor here is, by far, the
best in Europe; for that, except in England and her
American colonies, there is not in any country of the
known world, not even in Scotland or Ireland, a pro-
vision by law to enforce a support of the poor,
where else necessity reduces to beggary. This law
was not made by the poor. The legislators were men
of fortune. By that act they voluntarily subjected their
own estates, and the estates of all others, to the pay-
ment of a tax for the maintenance of the poor, encum-
bering those estates with a kind of rent-charge for that

368 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

purpose, whereby the poor are vested with an inherit-
ance, as it were, in all the estates of the rich. I wish
they were benefited by this generous provision in any
degree equal to the good intention, with which it was
made, and is continued. But I fear the giving mankind
a dependence on any thing for support, in age or sick-
ness, besides industry and frugality during youth and
health, tends to flatter our natural indolence, to encourage
idleness and prodigality, and thereby to promote and
increase poverty, the very evil it was intended to cure ;
thus multiplying beggars instead of diminishing them.

Besides this tax, which the rich in England have
subjected themselves to, in behalf of the poor, amount-
ing in some places to five or six shillings in the pound,
of the annual income, they have, by donations and sub-
scriptions, erected numerous schools in various parts of
the kingdom, for educating, gratis, the children of the
poor in reading and writing; and in many of those
schools the children are also fed and clothed. They
have erected hospitals at an immense expense for the
reception and cure of the sick, the lame, the wounded,
and the insane poor, for lying-in women, and deserted
children. They are also continually contributing to-
wards making up losses occasioned by fire, by storms,
or by floods, and to relieve the poor in severe seasons
of frost, in times of scarcity, &,c., in which benevolent
and charitable contributions no nation exceeds us.
Surely, there is some gratitude due for so many in-
stances of goodness.

Add to this all the laws made to discourage foreign
manufactures, by laying heavy duties on them, or totally
prohibiting them, whereby the rich are obliged to pay
much higher prices for what they wear and consume,
than if the trade was open. These are so many laws for
the support of our laboring poor, made by the rich, and

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 369

continued at their expense ; all the difference of price,
between our own and foreign commodities, being so
much given by our rich to our poor ; who would indeed
be enabled by it to get by degrees above poverty, if
they did not, as too generally they do, consider every
increase of wages, only as something that enables them
to drink more and work less ; so that their distress in
sickness, age, or times of scarcity, continues to be the
same as if such laws had never been made in their
favor.

Much malignant censure have some writers bestowed
upon the rich for their luxury and expensive living, while
the poor are starving, &,c. ; not considering that what the
rich expend, the laboring poor receive in payment for
their labor. It may seem a paradox if I should assert,
that our laboring poor do in every year receive the
whole revenue of the nation; I mean not only the
public revenue, but also the revenue or clear income
of all private estates, or a sum equivalent to the whole.

In support of this position I reason thus. The rich do
not work for one another. Their habitations, furniture,
clothing, carriages, food, ornaments, and every thing in
short, that they or their families use and consume, is the
work or produce of the laboring poor, who are, and
must be continually, paid for their labor in producing the
same. In these payments the revenues of private
estates are expended, for most people live up to their
incomes. In clothing or provision for troops, in arms,
ammunition, ships, tents, carriages, &,c. &c., (every par-
ticular the produce of labor,) much of the public revenue
is expended. The pay of officers, civil and military,
and of the private soldiers and sailors, requires the rest ;
and they spend that also in paying for what is produced
by the laboring poor.

I allow that some estates may increase by the owners

VOL. ii. 47

370 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

spending less than their income ; but then I conceive
that other estates do at the same time diminish by the
owners spending more than their income, so that
when the enriched want to buy more land, they easily
find lands in the hands of the impoverished, whose
necessities oblige them to sell ; and thus this difference
is equalled. I allow also, that part of the expense of the
rich is in foreign produce or manufactures, for producing
which the laboring poor of other nations must be paid ;
but then I say, we must first pay our own laboring poor
for an equal quantity of our manufactures or produce, to
exchange for those foreign productions, or we must pay
for them in money, which money, not being the natural
produce of our country, must first be purchased from
abroad, by sending out its value in the produce or
manufactures of this country, for which manufactures
our laboring poor are to be paid. And indeed, if we
did not export more than we import, we could have no
money at all. I allow farther, that there are middle
men, who make a profit, and even get estates, by pur-
chasing the labor of the poor, and selling it at advanced
prices to the rich; but then they cannot enjoy that
profit, or the incomes of estates, but by spending them
in employing and paying our laboring poor, in some
shape or other, for the products of industry. Even
beggars, pensioners, hospitals, and all that are supported
by charity, spend their incomes hi the same manner.
So that finally, as I said at first, our laboring poor re-
ceive annually the whole of the clear revenues of the
nation, and from us they can have no more.

If it be said that their wages are too low, and that
they ought to be better paid for their labor, I heartily
wish that any means could be fallen upon to do it, con-
sistent with their interest and happiness ; but, as the
cheapness of other things is owing to the plenty of

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 371

those things, so the cheapness of labor is in most cases
owing to the multitude of laborers, and to their under-
working one another in order to obtain employment.
How is this to be remedied ? A law might be made to
raise their wages ; but, if our manufactures are too dear,
they will not vend abroad, and all that part of employ-
ment will fail, unless by fighting and conquering we
compel other nations to buy our goods, whether they \
will or no, which some have been mad enough at times \
to propose.

Among ourselves, unless we give our working people
less employment, how can we, for what they do, pay
them higher than we do? Out of what fund is the
additional price of labor to be paid, when all our present
incomes are, as it were, mortgaged to them ? Should
they get higher wages, would that make them less poor,
if, in consequence, they worked fewer days of the week
proportionably ? I have said, a law might be made to
raise their wages ; but I doubt much whether it could
be executed to any purpose, unless another law, now
indeed almost obsolete, could at the same time be re-
vived and enforced ; a law, I mean, that many have often
heard and repeated, but few have ever duly considered.
Six <%s shalt thou labor. This is as positive a part of
the commandment, as that which says, The SEVENTH
day thou shalt rest. But we remember well to observe
the indulgent part, and never think of the other. Saint
Monday is generally as duly kept by our working peo-
ple as Sunday ; the only difference is, that, instead of
employing their time cheaply at church, they are wast-
ing it expensively at the alehouse.

I am, Sir, yours, &c. MEDIUS.

372 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

SOME GOOD WHIG PRINCIPLES.

A printed paper, of which the following is a copy, was found
among Dr. Franklin's papers, endorsed by him as above. — W T. F.

DECLARATION of those RIGHTS of the Commonalty
of Great Britain, without which they cannot be FREE.

It is declared,

First, That the government of this realm, and the
making of laws for the same, ought to be lodged in the
hands of King, Lords of Parliament, and Representatives
of the whole body of the freemen of this realm.

Secondly, That every man of the commonalty (ex-
cepting infants, insane persons, and criminals) is, of
common right, and by the laws of God, a freeman, and
entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty.

Thirdly, That liberty, or freedom, consists in having
an actual share in the appointment of those who frame
the laws, and who are to be the guardians of every
man's life, property, and peace ; for the all of one man
is as dear to him as the all of another; and the poor
man has an equal right, but more need, to have repre-
sentatives in the legislature than the rich one.

Fourthly, That they who have no voice nor vote in
the electing of representatives, do not enjoy liberty; but
are absolutely enslaved to those who have votes, and to
their representatives ; for to be enslaved is to have
governors whom other men have set over us, and be
subject to laws made by the representatives of others,
without having had representatives of our own to give
consent in our behalf..

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 373

Fifthly, That a very great majority of the commonal-
ty of this realm are denied the privilege of voting for
representatives in Parliament ; and, consequently, they
are enslaved to a small number, who do now enjoy the
privilege exclusively to themselves ; but who, it may be
presumed, are far from wishing to Continue in the ex-
clusive possession of a privilege, by which their fellow-
subjects are deprived of common right, of justice, of
liberty; and which, if not communicated to all, must
speedily cause the certain overthrow of our happy con-
stitution, and enslave us all.

And, sixthly and lastly, We also say and do assert,
that it is the right of the commonalty of this realm to
elect a new House of Commons once in every year,
according to the ancient and sacred laws of the land ;
because, whenever a Parliament continues in being for
a longer term, very great numbers of the commonalty,
who have arrived at years of manhood since the last elec-
tion, and therefore have a right to be actually represented
in the House of Commons, are then unjustly deprived
of that right.

POSITIONS

TO BE EXAMINED, CONCERNING NATIONAL WEALTH.

DATED APRIL 4, 1769.

1. ALL food or subsistence for mankind arises from
the earth or waters.

2. Necessaries of life, that are not food, and all
other conveniences, have their values estimated by the
proportion of food consumed while we are employed in
procuring them.

VOL. II. FF

374 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

3. A small people, with a large territory, may sub-
sist on ;he productions of nature, with no other labor
than that of gathering the vegetables and catching the
animals.

4. A large people, with a small territory, finds these
insufficient, and, ft> subsist, must labor the earth, to
make it produce greater quantities of vegetable food,
suitable for the nourishment of men, and of the animals
they intend to eat.

5. From this labor arises a great increase of vegeta-
ble and animal food, and of materials for clothing, as
flax, wool, silk, &c. The superfluity of these is wealth.
With this wealth we pay for the labor employed in
building our houses, cities, &c., which are therefore
only subsistence thus metamorphosed.

6. Manufactures are only another shape into which
: so much provisions and subsistence are turned, as were
! equal in value to the manufactures produced. This ap-
pears from hence, that the manufacturer does not, in fact,
obtain from the employer, for his labor, more than a
mere subsistence, including raiment, fuel, and shelter ;
all which derive their value from the provisions con-
sumed in procuring them.

7. The produce of the earth, thus converted into
manufactures, may be more easily carried to distant
markets than before such conversion.

8. Fair commerce is, where equal values are ex-
changed for equal, the expense of transport included.
Thus, if it costs A in England as much labor and
charge to raise a bushel of wheat, as it costs B in
France to produce four gallons of wine, then are four
gallons of wine the fair exchange for a bushel of wheat,
A and B meeting at half distance with their commodi-
ties to make the exchange. The advantage of this fair
commerce is, that each party increases the number of

POLITICAL ECONOMY 375

his enjoyments, having, instead of wheat alone, or wine
alone, the use of both wheat and wine.

9. Where the labor and expense of producing both
commodities are known to both parties, bargains will
generally be fair and equal. Where they are known to
one party only, bargains will often ^be unequal, knowl-
edge taking its advantage of ignorance.

10. Thus, he that carries one thousand bushels of
wheat abroad to sell, may not probably obtain so great
a profit thereon, as if he had first turned the wheat
into manufactures, by subsisting therewith the workmen
while producing those manufactures; since there are
many expediting and facilitating methods of working,
not generally known ; and strangers to the manufactures,
though they know pretty well the expense of raising
wheat, are unacquainted with those short methods of
working, and, thence being apt to suppose more labor
employed in the manufactures than there really is, are
more easily imposed on in their value, and induced to
allow more for them than they are honestly worth.*

11. Thus the advantage of having manufactures in
a country does not consist, as is commonly supposed,
in their highly advancing the value of rough materials,

* The reasons for paying a price are not founded merely upon a com-
putation of the expense of production. A general knowledge of the
expense of producing a bushel of corn does not prevent the producer from
demanding and the consumer from paying a higher price, when the article
is scarce ; nor the consumer from offering and the producer from accept-
ing a lower price, when it is plenty. A proposition bearing a near affinity
to that stated in the text seems to be true, namely, that those things
which are of general production and habitual consumption, like the com-
mon agricultural products, are more likely to bear a market price near
to the cost of production, than things of less common production and less
regular use, as the article of lace, mentioned in the next section. It may
also be generally the case, that the greater the distance of the place of
consumption from that of production, the longer an article is likely to be
sold at a great profit, since the operation of competition, in bringing down
the price, is likely to be slower. — W. PHILLIPS.

376 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

of which they are formed; since, though six penny-
worth of flax may be worth twenty shillings when
worked into lace, yet the very cause of its being worth
twenty shillings is, that, besides the flax, it has cost
nineteen shillings and sixpence in subsistence to the
manufacturer. But the advantage of manufactures is, /
that under their shape provisions may be more easily I
carried to a foreign market ; and, by their means, our
traders may more easily cheat strangers.* Few, where
it is not made, are judges of the value of lace. The
importer may demand forty, and perhaps get thirty,
shillings for that which cost him but twenty.

12. 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 neighbours.
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 contin-
ual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his fa-
vor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous
industry.

* Franklin does not, probably, intend to be literally understood as
recommending a system of defrauding foreigners ; the benefit he proposes
from manufactures does not, by any means, amount to this. Nobody con-
siders it cheating to obtain from a domestic purchaser more for a thing
than it costs the vender to make it. The most scrupulous mercantile
morality does not proscribe profits. The author has elsewhere stated,
that gain is the great motive of commerce. lie can only mean what he
has elsewhere stated, that the nation exporting manufactures has the
means of carrying on a more profitable foreign trade, which it may do as
long as there are few competitors in effecting sales. But the other
reason mentioned immediately before, in favor of exporting manufactures,
namely, that it gives an opportunity of exporting the products of more
labor, is of much greater importance than the chance of making extraordi-
nary profits ; a chance which has been very much diminished by the
diffusion of the manufacturing arts, since this article was written. —
W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 377

PLAN ,

FOR BENEFITING DISTANT UNPROVIDED
COUNTRIES.

BY DR. FRANKLIN AND MR. DALRYMPLE."
AUGUST 29, 1771.

THE country, called in the maps New Zealand, has
been discovered, by the Endeavour, to be two islands, to-
gether as large as Great Britain ; these islands, named
Acpy-nomawee and Tovy-poennammoo, are inhabited
by a brave and generous race, who are destitute of corn,
fowls, and all quadrupeds, except dogs.

These circumstances being mentioned lately in a
company of men of liberal sentiments, it was observed,
that it seemed incumbent on such a country as this, to
communicate to all others the conveniences of life,
which we enjoy.

Dr. Franklin, whose life has ever been directed to
promote the true interest of society, said, " he would
with all his heart subscribe to a voyage intended to com-
municate in general those benefits which we enjoy, to
countries destitute of them in the remote parts of the
globe." This proposition being warmly adopted by the
rest of the company, Mr. Dalrymple, then present, was
induced to offer to undertake the command in such an
expedition.

On mature reflection, this scheme appears the most
honorable to the national character of any which can be
conceived, as it is grounded on the noblest principle of
benevolence. Good intentions are often frustrated by

* These proposals were printed upon a sheet of paper, and distributed.
The parts written by Dr. Franklin and Mr. Dalrymple are easily dis-
tinguished. — B. V.

VOL. II. 48 FF*

378 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

letting them remain undigested ; on this consideration,
Mr. Dalrymple was induced to put the outlines on paper,
which are now published, that, by an early communica-
tion, there may be a better opportunity of collecting all
the hints which can conduce to execute effectually the
benevolent purpose of the expedition, in case it should
meet with general approbation.

On this scheme being shown to Dr. Franklin, he
communicated his sentiments, by way of introduction, to
the following effect ;

" Britain is said to have produced originally nothing
but sloes. What vast advantages have been communi-
cated to her by the fruits, seeds, roots, herbage, animals,
and arts of other countries ! We are, by their means,
become a wealthy and a mighty nation, abounding in all
good things. Does not some duty hence arise from us
towards other countries, still remaining in our former
state ?

"Britain is now the first maritime power in the
world. Her ships are innumerable, capable, by their
form, size, and strength, of sailing on all seas. Our sea-
men are equally bold, skilful, and hardy ; dexterous in
exploring the remotest regions, and ready to engage in
voyages to unknown countries, though attended with
the greatest dangers. The inhabitants of those coun-
tries, our fellow men, have canoes only ; not knowing
iron, they cannot build ships ; they have little astronomy,
and no knowledge of the compass to guide them ; they
cannot therefore come to us, or obtain any of our ad-
vantages. From these circumstances, does not some
duty seem to arise from us to them ? Does not Provi-
dence, by these distinguishing favors, seem to call on
us, to do something ourselves for the common interest
of humanity?

"Those who think it their duty to ask bread and

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 379

other blessings daily from Heaven, would they not think
it equally a duty to communicate of those blessings
when they have received them, and show their grati-
tude to their great Benefactor by the only means
in their power, promoting the happiness of his other
children ?

" Ceres is said to have made a journey through many
countries to teach the use of corn, and the art of raising
it. For this single benefit the grateful nations deified
her. How much more may Englishmen deserve such
honor, by communicating the knowledge and use, not
of corn only, but of all the other enjoyments the earth
can produce, and which they are now in possession of.
Communiter bona profundere, Deum est.

" Many voyages have been undertaken with views of
profit or of plunder, or to gratify resentment ; to procure
some advantage to ourselves, or do some mischief to
others. But a voyage is now proposed, to visit a distant
people on the other side the globe ; not to cheat them,
not to rob .them, not to seize their lands, or enslave
their persons ; but merely to do them good, and make
them, as far as in our power lies, to live as comfortably
as ourselves.

" It seems a laudable wish, that all the nations of the
earth were connected by a knowledge of each other,
and a mutual exchange of benefits ; but a commercial
nation particularly should wish for a general civilization
of mankind, since trade is always carried on to much
greater extent with people who have the arts and con-
veniences of life, than it can be with naked savages.
We may therefore hope, in this undertaking, to be of
some service to our country as well as to those poor
people, who, however distant from us, are in truth relat-
ed to us, and whose interests do, in some degree, con-
cern every one who can say, Homo sum, &c."

FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Scheme of a voyage by subscription, to convey the
conveniences of life, as fowls, hogs, goats, cattle, corn,
iron, &,c., to those remote regions, which are destitute
of them, and to bring from thence such productions, as
can be cultivated in this kingdom, to the advantage of
society, in a ship under the command of Alexander
Dalrymple.

Catt or bark, from the coal trade, of 350 tons,

estimated at about „• ^v' ' v"1 . .£2,000
Extra expenses, stores, boats, &c. :V -P 3,000

To be manned with sixty men at £4 per man
per month, . . ,£240

12

<£ 2,880 per annum.

3
Wages and provisions .£8,640 for three years 8,640

13,640

Cargo included, supposed '>i • •"*". 1 < .; , <£ 15,000

The expenses of this expedition are calculated for
three years; but the greatest part of the amount of
wages will not be wanted till the ship returns, and a
great part of the expense of provisions will be saved by
what is obtained in the course of the voyage, by barter
or otherwise, though it is proper to make provision for
contbgencies.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

381

CONCERNING
THE PROVISION MADE IN CHINA AGAINST FAMINE.*

I HAVE somewhere read, that, in China, an account is
yearly taken of the number of people, and the quanti-
ties of provision produced. This account is transmit-
ted to the emperor, whose ministers can thence foresee
a scarcity, likely to happen in any province, and from
what province it can best be supplied in good time.
To facilitate the collecting of this account, and prevent
the necessity of entering houses and spending time in
asking and answering questions, each house is furnished
with a little board, to be hung without the door during
a certain time each year ; on which board are marked
certain words, against which the inhabitant is to mark
the number and quantity, somewhat in this manner ;

Men,
Women,
Children,
Rice or Wheat,
Flesh, &,c.

All under sixteen are accounted children, and all
above men and women. Any other particulars, which
the government desires information of, are occasionally
marked on the same boards. Thus the officers, ap-
pointed to collect the accounts in each district, have
only to pass before the Joors, and enter into their book

* Taken from Dr. Percival'a Essays, (Vol. III. p. 25,) being an extract
from a letter written to him by Dr. Franklin, on the subject of his Ob-
servations on the state of population in Manchester and other adjacent
places. — B. V.

382 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

what they find marked on the board, without giving the
least trouble to the family. There is .a penalty on
marking falsely ; and, as neighbours must know nearly
the truth of each other's account, they dare not expose
themselves, by a false one, to each other's accusa-
tion. Perhaps such a regulation is scarcely practicable
with us.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 383

PRINCIPLES OF TRADE

Freedom and protection are its best support ; industry the only means to ren-
der manufactures cheap.

Commerce is generally understood to be the basis, on which the power of this
country hath been raised, and on which it must ever stand.

Tous les sujets doivent leurs soins, et leurs lumieres. a 1'etat

THE account given of this tract by William Temple Franklin is
as follows. " It was originally published in 1774, and is the joint
work of George Whatley and Dr. Franklin. The original work
was indeed written by the former, and communicated to the latter.
The corrections and additions, which were made by Dr. Franklin,
produced an amicable controversy between them, who had the best
claim to call himself the author of it, which closed by a determina-
tion to publish it without any name, but under this designation, By
a Well-wisher to the King and Country." The parts contributed by
each might perhaps be separated by a careful inspection, but the
whole tract is too valuable to be marred by such an attempt ; and
moreover it may be presumed, from the circumstances of the case,
that all the principles contained in it were approved by Dr. Frank-
lin. In a letter ten years afterwards to Mr. Whatley, written at
Passy, he requests of him a copy of his " excellent little work, The
Principles of Trade," and adds ; " If your bookseller has any
quantity of them left, I should be glad he would send them to
America. The ideas of our people there, though rather better than
those that prevail in Europe, are not so good as they should be, and
that piece might be of service to them." Mr. Vaughan has brought
together detached parts of this paper under the title of POLITICAL

384 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

FRAGMENTS, and it is probable that the passages selected by him
are those, which were written by Franklin.

This essay abounds in sound doctrines of political economy, and
is characterized throughout by originality, comprehensiveness, and
justness of thinking. — EDITOR. •

DEDICATION.

To all those, who have the welfare and prosperity of
these kingdoms at heart, the following essay, contain-
ing, we hope, useful and incontrovertible principles on
the subjects treated of, is very heartily and affectionate-
ly inscribed.

March, 1774.

PREFACE.

IT is a vain imagination that we exist only for our-
selves, or our particular country. The all-wise Creator
has ordered that a mutual dependence shall run through
all his works ; and though our limited capacities will not
admit us fully to comprehend the nature and end of this
connected chain of things, yet we may, and indeed
ought, to inquire into and consider every thing, which
relates to our mutual dependence upon one another,
and the springs and principles of our actions.

By this investigation we shall find, that our wants,
whether real or ideal, our passions, and our habits, are
the springs of all our actions, and indeed the movers
of the general intercourse and commerce between one
man and another, one country and another.

Most writers upon trade have made it their business
to support and explain some particular branches of traf-
fic, or some favorite hypothesis. We shall, in the en-
suing essay, use our best endeavours to remove from the
friends of trade, and mankind in general, some prevail-
ing prejudices ; and to treat, in a concise manner, upon

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 385

a few self-evident principles and general maxims ; un-
der a persuasion,. that, if such maxims and principles are
just, all deductions and discussions whatever may be
tried by their standard.

Some very respectable friends have indulged us with
their ideas and opinions. It is with the greatest pleasure
we, in this second edition, most gratefully acknowl-
edge the, favor ; and must add, that, should the public
hold this performance in any estimation, no small share
belongs to those friends.

Definition of Trade.

1. Trade, or commerce, is the intercourse, as well
between nation and nation, as between one man and
another; by which we acquire whatsoever may be
thought, or understood to be, of use or delight, whether

real or ideal.

Gain the End of Trade.

2. The spring or movement of such intercourse is,
and ever must be, gain, or the hopes of gam ; as neither
the public, nor the individual, would intentionally pursue
any unprofitable intercourse or commerce.

3. Gain being the principle of trade, the whole mys-
tery of trade must therefore consist in prosecuting
methods, whereby gain or advantage may be obtained.

In transactions of trade, it is not to be supposed, that,
like gaming, what one party gains the other must lose.
The gain to each may be equal. If A has more corn
than he can consume, but wants cattle, and B has
more cattle, but wants corn, an exchange is gain to
each ; hereby the common stock of comforts in life is
increased.

Freedom and Protection the best Support of Trade.

4. Freedom and protection are most indisputable

VOL. II. 49 GG

386 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

principles whereon the success of trade must depend,
as clearly as an open, good road tends towards a safe
and speedy intercourse ; nor is there a greater enemy
to trade than constraint.*

5. Governments, which have adopted those plain,
simple principles, have been greatly benefited.

6. Were princes, in general, to abolish all sorts of
prohibitory laws, trade in general would flourish most
in those countries, where the happy situation, the mild-
ness of the climate, the activity and industry of the
inhabitants, would furnish means for a speedy and use-
ful intercourse, reciprocally to supply any real or ideal
want.

When princes make war by prohibiting commerce,
each may hurt himself as much as his enemy. Tra-
ders, who by their business are promoting the common
good of mankind, as well as farmers and fishermen,
who labor for the subsistence of all, should never be
interrupted or molested in their business ; but enjoy the
protection of all in the time of war, as well as in the
time of peace.

This policy those we are pleased to call barbarians
have, in a great measure, adopted ; for the trading sub-
jects of any power, with whom the Emperor of Morocco
may be at war, are not liable to capture, when within
sight of his land, going or coming, and have otherwise
free liberty to trade and reside in his dominions.

As a maritime power, we presume it is not thought

* This maxim and the following to the tenth section coincide with the
doctrines of Adam Smith, promulgated the year following in the " Wealth
of Nations." They are now universally received as general doctrines of
political economy. It is universally admitted, at the same time, that they
are subject to exceptions. The great difficulty is to determine on the prin-
' ciples and grounds, on which exceptions are to he made ; and also to de-
termine on what principles, in what manner, and to what extent, protection
is to be extended to trade. — W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 387

right, that Great Britain should grant such freedom, ex-
cept partially ; as in the case of war with France, when
tobacco is allowed to be sent thither under the sanction
of passports.

7. We are no more to expect this, than that the
whole world should be governed by the same laws. In
our opinion, however, no laws, which the art of man can
devise, will or can hinder, or entirely stop the current
of, a profitable trade ; any more than the severest laws
could prevent the satisfying of hunger, when any chance
or opportunity offered to gratify it.

8. Nevertheless, so far as it is possible, according to
the different modes and constitutions of each state,
freedom and protection should be ever had in view by
its respective government.

9. For whatever law is enacted, abridging a free-
dom or liberty, which the true interest of the state de-
mands, or which does not grant protection where it
may be wanted, must clearly be detrimental.

10. We are well aware, that in many cases individuals
may endeavour at an intercourse or trade, whereby the
public, in one particular point, may seem injured ; and
yet it may be out of the power of the state to hinder it,
without breaking in upon the freedom of trade ; so that
the Dutchman, who, when Antwerp was besieged, fur-
nished arms, ammunition, and provisions to the Spaniards,
and gloried in it, though a chief magistrate of Amster-
dam, was not so very wrong in his principles in general,
as at first sight might appear. For this Dutchman ran
the risk of losing his ammunition, &c., which, if taken,
would have been indeed his loss, but a gain to the cap-
tors, his countrymen ; and, if sold and delivered to the
enemy, brought profit to him, and in consequence to
the state of which he was a member. This man, to
evince how much he held freedom in trade to be

388 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

essential, used a very strong figure, when, owning his
having furnished the enemy of the state with ammuni-
tion, &,c., he added, that he would, to prosecute his
trade, sail through hell, at the risk of singeing his sails.
It is generally a vain imagination, that if we do not
furnish an enemy with what he wants, he cannot be
supplied elsewhere. Since we are to suffer the mis-
chief he may do with it, why should we not receive the
profit that arises on supplying it ? Thus might the
Dutchman have reasoned when he supplied the enemy
with ammunition, &,c.

11. We have, as a first principle, laid down what we
apprehend every one must allow, that gain, or the
hope of gain, is the mover of all intercourse or trade.
Herein, as above hinted, must be comprehended all
matters of use, in the first instance ; and then, matters
of ambition, delight, opinion ; in one word, luxury.

12. Now things of real use can only be meat, drink,
clothing, fuel, and habitation. The several particu-
lars relative to these every one's mind can suggest ; to
enumerate would almost be endless.

13. As to meat, in a country where corn, fruits, and
cattle can be raised and bred, the inhabitants must be
wanting in industry to cultivate the lands, or they can-
not, in the common course of things, want help from
their neighbours for sustenance.

The same as to drink ; if for it they will content
themselves with the beverage made of their own corn
and fruits.

And so of clothing ; if they can be satisfied to be
clad with the manufactures made from the produce of
their own country.

As to fuel and habitation, there are very few countries
which do not afford these articles.

14. The real want of all or any of these necessaries

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 389

must and ever will be an incentive to labor ; either by
every individual himself in the community, or by those,
to whom an equivalent is given for their labor.

15. When ambition, delight, opinion, otherwise luxu-
ry, come to be considered, the field is extremely en-
larged ; and it will require a copious deliberation and
ascertainment.

16. For luxury may be earned to such a height, as
to be thought by some to be prejudicial to the state ;
though we, in a general sense, cannot well apprehend it
can ; inasmuch as what we call riches must be the
cause of luxury, taken in all its branches.

17. Now riches, as we conceive them, consist in
whatever either a state or an individual have, more
than is necessary to procure the above essentials, which
are only of real use, viz. meat and drink, and clothes,
fire and shelter.

This more or abundance, from whatsoever cause it
may proceed, after the bartering for and procuring
those essentials, would absolutely, and to all intents, be
useless and of no manner of avail, were it not that de-
light and opinion came in aid, to cause what we will
call ideal wants ; which wants our passions, put into our
make by the almighty hand that formed us, cause us to
be almost as solicitous to provide for and to supply, as
if such wants were real.

18. We therefore must repeat, that from motives to
acquire what may be thought of real or ideal use,
spring the intercourse or trade between nations, as well
as between individuals ; and it seems to be self-evident
that the produce of the land, and of industry in general,
must supply all our wants, and consequently our trade.

19. Now, though it is hardly to be expected, as
above hinted, that princes should allow of a general free
trade or intercourse, because they seldom know their

GG*

390 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

own true interest ; yet it does not follow that funda-
mental maxims should not be attended to in governing
an industrious people. Some of these principles we
beg leave to expatiate on.

Fundamental Maxims for an industrious People.

20. Land, to bring forth its increase, must be cultivated
by man and beast. It is therefore the duty and in-
terest of the state to rear both man and beast, and in
their respective classes to nourish and cherish them.

21. Industry in all shapes, in all instances, and by all
means, should be encouraged and protected ; indolence,
by every possible method rooted out.

All that live must be subsisted. Subsistence costs
something. He that is industrious produces by his in-
dustry something that is an equivalent, and pays for his
subsistence. He is therefore no charge or burden to
society. The indolent are an expense, uncompensated.

There can be no doubt but all kinds of employment
that can be followed without prejudice from interrup-
tions ; work that can be taken up and laid down often
.n a day, without damage, such as spinning, knitting,
weaving, &c., are highly advantageous to a country ;
because in them may be collected all the produce of
those fragments of time that occur in family business,
between the constant and necessary parts of it, that
usually occupy females ; as the time between rising and
preparing breakfast, between breakfast and preparing
for dinner, &,c. The amount of all these fragments is, in
the course of a year, very considerable to a single
family; to a state proportionably. Highly profitable
therefore it is, in this case also, to follow the divine di-
rection, " Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost." '•

* Adam Smith's views of the importance of household manufactures
coincide with those expressed in this section. — W. PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 391

Lost time is lost subsistence ; it is therefore lost treasure.
Hereby, in several families, many yards of linen have
been produced from the employment of these fragments
only, in one year, though such families were just the
same in number as when not so employed.

It was an excellent saying of a certain Chinese
emperor, " I will, if possible, have no idleness in my do-
minions ; for, if there be one man idle, some other man
must suffer cold and hunger." We take this emperor's
meaning to be, that the labor due to the public by each
individual, not being performed by the indolent, must
naturally fall to the share of others, who must thereby
suffer.

22. Whatever can contribute towards procuring from
the land, and by industry, a produce wherewith other
nations may be supplied, ought highly to be encouraged.

23. Materials wanting in a country to employ its in-
habitants, ought by all means to be procured. Gold
and silver, those tokens of riches, used as silch, and
otherwise of little use, are not near so estimable. The
bartering of them for such materials is manifestly ad-
vantageous.*

24. These, as we apprehend, are incontrovertible
principles, on which a wise government will found its
resolutions.

25. That the use of the produce of other countries
for ideal wants ought to be discouraged, particularly
when the produce of the land, or of industry, are not
given in exchange for them, has been strongly urged by
many. On the grand principle of freedom in trade, we
cannot well admit it ; for it is plain the luxurious will

*This section, and those that follow, particularly the twenty -ninth,
show, that the authors of this essay had, before the publication of the
" Wealth of Nations," seen the fallacy of the former prejudices that had
been in vogue, respecting the expediency of forcing a favorable balance
of trade by prohibiting the exportation of specie. — W. PHILLIPS.

392 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

use, and the trader, to prosecute his gain, will procure,
such foreign produce ; nor do prohibitory laws or heavy
duties hinder. Nevertheless, to allow for a moment the
doctrine, we will remark, that only the establishing it as a
mode or fashion amongst the opulent and great can
possibly effectuate a disuse or discouragement.

In fact, the produce of other countries can hardly be
obtained, unless by fraud or rapine, without giving
the produce of our land or our industry in exchange
for them. If we have mines of gold and silver, gold
and silver may then be called the produce of our
land. If we have not, we can only fairly obtain those
metals by giving for them the produce of our land or
industry. When we have them, they are then only that
produce or industry in another shape ; which we may
give, if the trade requires it, and our other produce will
not suit, in exchange for the produce of some other
country, that furnishes what we have more occasion for,
or more 'desire. When we have, to an inconvenient de-
gree, parted with our gold and silver, our industry is
stimulated afresh to procure more, that by its means
we may contrive to procure the same advantage.

In this place it will be proper to observe upon an
erroneous doctrine, which has been often strenuously
insisted on, that the cheapness of provisions must render
manufactures cheap; and that plenty of money con-
duces to the benefit of trade. We shall endeavour to
prove that industry alone does both.

Trade benefited by Industry mare than Money.

26. Providence has wisely ordained, that there should
be different occupations and pursuits amongst men, and
that the rich and poor should be actuated by different
wants, whether real or ideal. It is next to impossible
that the rich should be without desires, or wishes for

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 393

greater acquisitions ; or the poor without being necessi-
tated to acquire what must supply their real wants. If
the rich curtail their desires, or wishes, their riches
serve, in proportion to their not using them, no more than
ore in an un worked mine. If the poor man, by one day's
labor can supply his real wants for two days, and sits
idle the half of his time, he may be considered in such
an idle time, as a monk or a cripple with regard to the
community. If a thirst for acquisition move the rich
m,an, he industriously employs all his riches. If the
scarcity of provisions compel the poor man to work his
whole time, he assuredly, by his industry, must make
more manufactures than only working half of it. Hence
we conclude, that gain is the first mover, and industry,
and the desire of supplying our wants, the intermediate
movers, of all intercourse or trade. We however must
observe, that a government truly wise should always, as
far as the general good allows, be as solicitous to pro-
cure plenty of provisions, whereby both man and beast
may be kept in good health and strength, as to encour-
age industry. For industry cannot be sufficiently sus-
tained without the strength arising from plenty of pro-
visions.

The common people do not work for pleasure gener-
ally, but from necessity.* Cheapness of provisions
makes them more idle ; less work is then done ; it is
then more in demand proportionally ; and of course
the price rises. Dearness of provisions obliges the

* These maxims, and many others in this tract, are to be considered as
applicable to European society, particularly to England, where industry is
not applied to the profit of the individual who labors ; but where one or a
few individuals, with large capitals, make a monopoly of the industry of
thousands. These thousands, barely subsisted by labor, and, from the
scantiness of their reward or wages, never able to reserve a surplus to ac-
cumulate for their children or for old age, are ever dependent on their
employers ; and where labor is the only occupation, and bare existence
the only hope, there idleness is an enjoyment. — W. T. F.

VOL. ii. 50

394 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

manufacturer to work more days and more hours ; thus
more work is done than equals the usual demand ; of
course it becomes cheaper, and the manufactures in
consequence.

27. As to plenty of money being a benefit to trade
and manufactures, we apprehend every one conversant
therein must know that the cob, by which we generally
understand money, of every respective state, is by no
means the mover of the intercourse or tradings of the
world in general. Gold and silver in bullion, or in an
uncoined mass, are rather more so ; being, in point of
value, a merchandise less liable to variation than any
other. It is true that coin may be liable, in the fluctua-
tion of trade, to be made a merchandise of ; but as, by
constant use, the pieces of coin become lighter than
their original weight, they thereby are less fit for mer-
chandise. We therefore may say, that coins, in gener-
al, can no otherwise be useful, than as the common
measure between man and man, as serving to barter
against, or exchange for, all kinds of commodities.
Certain it is, that coins cannot be ranked amongst those
things which are only of real use. Let us therefore sup-
pose pieces of coin to be counters, and, to simplify the
matter still more, suppose every manufacturer to have
of these counters any sum whatever ; will it follow, that
any sort of manufacture shall be industriously attended
to, or more work done than when no more counters
than just enough to barter for the real wants of meat,
drink, and clothes, &c., can be procured by labor 1
Surely no. It must be the desire of supplying our
wants, which excites industry as above hinted ; that
alone sets that trade going, and only can procure plenty
of manufactures.

28. It is, nevertheless, the duty of government to
stamp coins or counters of different sorts and denomin-
ations, so that time, of all things the most precious, be not

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 395

wasted in settling the respective exchangings amongst
mankind. Nevertheless the plenty or scarcity of those
coins cannot entirely depend on any government, but
on the general circulation and fluctuation of trade,
which may make them a merchandise without the least
detriment; as it must be allowed, that the precious
metals gold and silver, of which such cobs are princi-
pally composed, are no other than merchandise acquired
from countries where there are mines, by those coun-
tries which have none, hi exchange for the produce of
their land or of their manufactures.

Silver Coin and its Scarcity.

29. That the welfare of any state depends on its
keeping all its gold and silver, either in bullion or in
coin, must be founded on a very narrow principle in-
deed. All republics we know of, wisely think other-
wise. Spain, the grand source of silver, has of late
years, very justly, allowed the free exportation of it,
paying a duty, as in Great Britain lead and tin do ; nor,
prior to this permission, could their penal laws in Spain
hinder its being exported ; for it was a commodity,
which that kingdom was under a necessity of giving as
an equivalent, for what was furnished to them by other
countries.

Could Spain and Portugal have succeeded in ex-
ecuting their foolish laws of "hedging in the cuckoo,19
as Locke calls it, and have kept at home all their
gold and silver, those metals would, by this time,
have been of little more value than so much lead or
iron. Their plenty would have lessened their value.
We see the folly of these edicts ; but are not our own
prohibitory and restrictive laws, that are professedly
made with intention to bring a balance in our favor from
our trade with foreign nations to be paid in money,

396 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

and laws to prevent the necessity of exporting that
money, which, if they could be thoroughly executed,
would make money as plenty and of as little value ',7.
say, are not such laws akin to those Spanish edicts,
follies of the same family ?

30. In Great Britain, the silver coin bearing a dispro-
portion to gold more than in neighbouring states, of about
five in the hundred, must, by that disproportion, become
merchandise, as well for exportation, as for the manufac-
tures at home hi which silver is employed, more than if
it remained in the mass uncoined. This might be
remedied without injuring the public, or touching the
present standard, which never should be done, only by
enacting that sixty-five shillings should be cut out of one
pound weight of standard silver, instead of sixty-two,
which are the number now ordained by law. We must
however remark, that whenever, by any extraordinary
demand for silver, a pound weight, bought even for six-
ty-five shillings, can be sent abroad to advantage, or
melted down for manufactures, no prohibitory laws will
hinder its exportation or melting, and still becoming a
merchandise.

Other Coins and Paper Money.

31. Coiners have pointed out, though at the risk of the
gallows, a measure which we think would be advisable
in some degree for government to adopt. They coin
and circulate shillings of such weight as to gain ten to
fourteen in the hundred, and upwards; as out of a
pound of standard silver they cut sixty-eight or seventy-
one shillings. That these light shillings or counters are
useful, though the public be so greatly imposed on, is
evident. It must be presumed, that every thing is put
in practice by government to detect and stop this
manifest roguery. If so, can it on the one hand be

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

supposed the public purse should bear the burden of this
fraud? Yet, on the other hand, having no supply
of legal shillings or counters, the utility of the illegal
ones forces them, as it were, on the public. The
power of the legislature to correct the erroneous pro-
portion of five in the hundred, as above mentioned, is
indubitable ; but whether every private person pos-
sessed of these counters, or the public purse, should
be obliged to bear the loss on a re-coinage, seems a
difficult point to determine ; as it may be alleged, that
every private person has it in his power to accept or
refuse any coin under the weight, as by law enacted,
for each denomination. If the former, he does it to
his own wrong, and must take the consequences.
The individual, on the other hand, has to allege the
almost total want of lawful counters ; together with
the impossibility or neglect of hindering those of an
inferior weight from being suffered to be current. It
may be submitted, that, as the use of coin is for public
utility, any loss which arises in the coin either by wear-
ing, or even by filing and sweating, ought to be made
good by calling in the coin after a certain number of
years from the time of coinage, and receiving the money
called in at the charge of the public. We are well
aware what latitude such a resolution might give to
the coiners of shillings, the filers, and the sweaters of
gold ; but, taking proper measures beforehand, this
evil might, we think, in a great degree be prevented.

32. In the beginning of his present Majesty's reign,
quarter-guineas were wisely ordered to be coined ;
whereby the want of silver coin was in some degree
supplied, which would still be more so, were thirds
and two-thirds of guineas to be coined. We cannot
conceive why this is not done, except that these de-
nominations are not specified in his Majesty's indenture

VOL. II. HH

398 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

with the master of the mint; which in our humble
opinion ought to be rectified.

33. We think it not improper here to observe, that
it matters not whether silver or gold be called the
standard money ; but it seems most rational that the
most scarce and precious metal should be the unit or
standard.

That, as to copper, it is as fit for money or a counter,
as gold or silver, provided it be corned of a proper
weight and fineness ; and just so much will be useful
as will serve to make up small parts in exchange be-
tween man and man, and no more ought to be coined.

As to paper circulating as money, it is highly profit-
able, as its quick passing from one to another is a
gain of time, and thereby may be understood to add
hands to the community ; inasmuch as those, who would
be employed in telling and weighing, will follow other
business. The issuers or coiners of paper are un-
derstood to have an equivalent to answer what it is
issued for or valued at ; nor can any metal or coin do
more than find its value.

It is impossible for government to circumscribe or
fix the extent of paper credit, which must, of course,
fluctuate. Government may as well pretend to lay
down rules for the operations or the confidence of every
individual in the course of his trade. Any seeming
temporary evil arising must naturally work its own
cure.

Exchanges.

34. As some principles relative to exchange have,
in our opinion, been treated of in a very confused
manner, and some maxims have been held out upon
that subject, which tend only to mislead, we shall
here briefly lay down what, according to our opinion,
are self-evident principles.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

35. Exchange, by bills, between one country or city
and another, we conceive to be this. One person
wants to get a sum from any country or city ; conse-
quently has his bill or draft to sell ; another wants to
send a sum thither, and therefore agrees to buy such
bill or draft. He has it at an agreed-for price, which
is the course of the exchange. It is with this price
for bills, as with merchandise ; when there is a scar-
city of bills in the market, they are dear ; when plenty,
they are cheap.

36. We judge it needless to enter into the several
courses and denominations of exchanges, which cus-
tom hath established ; they are taught at school. But
we think we must offer a few words to destroy an
erroneous principle, that has misled some and confused
others; which is, that by authority a certain par or
fixed price of exchange should be settled between
each respective country; thereby rendering the cur-
rency of exchange as fixed as the standard of coin.

37. We have above hinted, that plenty and scarcity
must govern the course of exchange. Which princi-
ple, duly considered, would suffice on the subject ; but
we will add, that no human foresight can absolutely
judge of the almost numberless fluctuations in trade,
which vary, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly,
between countries ; consequently no state or potentate
can by authority any more pretend to settle the cur-
rency of the prices of the several sorts of merchandise
sent to and from their respective dominions, than they
can a par of exchange. In point of merchandise, in-
deed, where there is a monopoly of particular com- ,
modities, an exception must be allowed as to such
articles; but this is not at all applicable to trade in
general, for the encouragement of which we cannot
too often repeat, that freedom and security are most
essentially necessary.

400 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Par of Exchange.

38. Another specious doctrine, much labored by
theorists, in consequence of that relating to the par,
is, that the exchange between any particular country
being above or below par, always shows whether
their reciprocal trade be advantageous or disadvanta-
geous. It is, and must be allowed, that hi trade
nothing is given without adequate returns or compen-
sations ; but these are so various and fluctuating be-
tween countries, as often indirectly as directly, that
there is no possibility of fixing a point from whence
to argue ; so that, should there happen a greater va-
riation than of two or three or more in the hundred,
at any certain period in the exchange, above or below
what is called the par or equality of the money of one
country to that of another, influenced by the fluctua-
tions and circulations in trade, it does not follow,
that a trade is advantageous or disadvantageous, ex-
cepting momentarily, if one may so say ; which can
be of no consequence to the public in general, as the
trade from advantageous may become disadvantageous,
and vice versa; and, consequently, the deducing of
reasons from what in its nature must be fluctuating,
can only help to embarrass, if not mislead.

39. To return to trade in general. Our principles,
we apprehend, may hold good for all nations, and ought
to be attended to by the legislative power of every
nation. We will not discuss every particular point;
nor is it to our purpose to exambe the pretended
principles or utility, whereon monopolies are generally
established. That the wisdom of government should
weigh and nicely consider any proposed regulation on
those principles, we humbly judge to be self-evident;
whereby may be seen whether it coincides with the
general good. Solomon adviseth " not to counsel with

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 401

a merchant for gain." This, we presume, relates to
the merchant's own particular profit, which, we repeat,
must ever be the spring of his actions. Government
ought, notwithstanding, to endeavour to procure par-
ticular informations from every one ; not only from
those actually employed, or those who have been con-
cerned, in particular branches of trade, but even from
persons who may have considered of it theoretically
and speculatively.

Perhaps, in general, it would be better if government
meddled no farther with trade, than to protect it, and
let it take its course. Most of the statutes, or acts,
edicts, arrets, and placarts of parliaments, princes, and
states, for regulating, directing, or restraining of trade,
have, we think, been either political blunders, or jobs
obtained by artful men for private advantage, under
pretence of public good. When Colbert assembled
some wise old merchants of France, and desired their
advice and opinion, how he could best serve and pro-
mote commerce, their answer, after consultation, was, in
three words only, Laissez-nous faire ; " Let us alone."
It is said by a very solid writer of the same nation,
that he is well advanced in the science of politics, who
knows the full force of that maxim, Pas trop gou-
vcrner ; " Not to govern too much." Which, perhaps,
would be of more use when applied to trade, than in
any other public concern. It were therefore to be wish-
ed, that commerce was as free between all the nations
of the world, as it is between the several counties of
England ; so would all, by mutual communication, ob-
tain more enjoyments. Those counties do not ruin
one another by trade ; neither would the nations. No
nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the
most disadvantageous.*

* The doctrine of this section is that, which is now universally
VOL. II. 51 HH*

FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Wherever desirable superfluities are imported, indus-
try is excited, and therefore plenty is produced. Were
only necessaries permitted to be purchased, men would
work no more than was necessary for that purpose.

Bounties.

40. Though we wave a discussion on particular
branches of trade, as the field is too large for our pres-
ent purpose ; and that particular laws and regulations
may require variation, as the different intercourses and
even interests of states, by different fluctuations, may
alter; yet, as what relates to bounties or premiums,
which the legislature of Great Britain has thought fit
to grant, hath been by some deemed, if not ill-judged,
unnecessary, we hope our time not ill-bestowed to con-
sider of the fitness and rectitude of the principle, on
which we apprehend these bounties or premiums have
been granted.

41. It must, we think, on all hands be allowed, that
the principle whereon they are founded must be an
encouragement tending to a general benefit, though
granted on commodities, manufactures, or fisheries, car-
ried on in particular places and countries, which are
presumed or found to require aid from the public purse
for farther improvement.

Of the bounties, some having had the proposed
effect are discontinued ; others are continued for the
very reason they were first given.

In our opinion, no doubt can arise as to the utility
of these grants from the public purse to individuals.
The grand principle of trade, which is gain, is the
foundation of bounties ; for, as every individual makes

received by political economists and legislators, subject of course to modi-
fications and exceptions in peculiar circumstances ; and it occupies a
conspicuous place in the "Wealth of Nations." — W.PHILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

a part of the whole public, consequently whatever ben-
efits the individual must benefit the public. Hereby
the wisdom of the legislature is most evident; nor
should it in any wise be arraigned, though ill success
attended any particular commodity, manufacture, or
fishery, for the encouragement of which bounties have
been established.

We are well aware, that it is not impossible the pur-
pose of bounty may have been perverted with a view
to improper gain ; but it is the duty of the legislature
to use the proper measures for preventing such iniquity.
This abuse, however, cannot be adduced as an argu-
ment against the benefit arising from allowing bounties.

Bounty on Wheat.

42. These principles in regard to bounties or pre-
miums are applicable to most articles of commerce,
except wheat, and other gram, which we shall consider
and enlarge on, as being of a complicated nature, and
concerning which mankind have at particular times been
divided in opinion.

43 It seems to us, that this bounty on grain wras
intended, not only to encourage the cultivating of land
for the raising of it in abundance in this kingdom, for
the use of its inhabitants, but also to furnish our neigh-
bours, whenever the kind hand of Providence should
be pleased to grant a superfluity.

44. It never can be presumed, that the encourage-
ment by the bounty insures to the community an unin-
terrupted, constant plenty ; yet, when the grower of
grain knows he may by such bounty have a chance
of a foreign market for any excess he may have, more
than the usual home consumption, he the more wil-
lingly labors and improves his land upon the presump-
tion of having a vent for his superfluity, by a demand

404 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

in foreign countries ; so that he will not probably be
distressed by abundance, which, strange as it may
seem to some, might be the case by his want of sale,
and his great charges of gathering in his crop.

45. As there are no public granaries in this king-
dom, the legislature could devise no better means than
to fix stated prices under which the bounty or encour-
agement from the public purse should be allowed.
Whenever the current prices exceeded those stipu-
lated, then such bounty should cease.

46. Few consider or are affected but by what is
present. They see grain, by reason of scanty crops,
dear ; therefore all the doors for grain, to the cultiva-
tors of it, must always be kept shut. The common
outcry is, that the exporting our wheat furnishes bread
to our neighbours cheaper than it can be afforded to
our poor at home, which affects our manufacturers, as
they can thereby work cheaper. To this last allega-
tion we must refer to what we have said, section 26 ;
though the former, that wheat is by the bounty afford-
ed to our neighbours cheaper than to us at home must,
in. general, be without foundation, from the several items
of charge attending the exportation of grain, such as
carriage, factorage, commission, porterage, &c. The
freight paid to our own shipping, to which alone the
bounty is restrained, must, when duly considered,
very sufficiently counterbalance the bounty ; so that
more than what is given out of the public purse is put
into the pockets of individuals, for the carriage, &c.
Therefore, we think, we may well presume, that in
general, grain exported comes dearer to the foreigner,
than to the consumer in Great Britain.

47. Nothing can be more evident, we apprehend,
than that the superfluity of our grain being exported,
is a clear profit to the kingdom ; as much as any

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 405

other produce of our labor in manufactures, in tin,
or any commodities whatsoever.

48. It behoves us, however, indubitably, to have
an eye towards having a sufficiency of grain for food
in this country, as we have laid down, section 26 ; and,
were the legislature to enact, that the justices of the
peace, at the Christmas quarter-session, should have
power to summon all growers of grain or dealers there-
in, and upon oath to examine them as- to the quantity
then remaining, returns of which quantities should be
made to the lords of the treasury, to be laid before
Parliament ; the legislature would, upon such returns,
be able to judge, whether it would be necessary to
enable his Majesty, with the advice of his council, to
put a stop to any farther exportation at such times as
might be thought proper.

49. Or it is submitted, whether the legislature would
not act more consistent with the principle of granting
bounties, by repealing the act allowing the present
bounty on the several sorts of grain at the now fixed
prices, and reduce these prices as follow ;

On wheat, from forty-eight to thirty-six or thirty-two
shillings.

On barley, from twenty-four to eighteen or sixteen
a quarter ; and so in proportion for any other grain. In
short, diminish the present standard prices, under which
the bounty is granted, one quarter or one third.

50. In our humble opinion, this last method would
be by much the most simple and eligible, as consistent
with our grand principle of freedom in trade, which
would be cramped, if dependent annually on parlia-
mentary deliberation.

51. The advocates for not lowering the present stipu-
lated prices, that command the bounties from the public
purse, may allege, that our ancestors deemed them

406 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

necessary, on the principle of granting any bounty at
all, which we have above hinted, section 43. We do
not controvert the wisdom of the principle for granting a
bounty ; for it must have been, and ever will be, an en-
couragement to cultivation ; and consequently it would
be highly improper wholly to discontinue it Never-
theless, if it has answered one great end proposed,
which was cultivation and improvement, and that it
is incontrovertible the cultivator has, by the improve-
ments made by the encouragement of the bounty, a
living profit at the reduced prices of thirty-two or
thirty-six shillings, sixteen or eighteen, &,c., as above,
which probably, when our ancestors enacted the law
for granting the bounty, they understood the cultivators
could not have ; it seems clear, that there ought to
be the proposed change and reduction of the bounty
prices, as above mentioned.*

52. The French, intent on trade, have a few years
since rectified a very gross mistake they labored under
in regard to their commerce in grain. One county or
province in France should abound, and the neighbour-
ing one, though almost starving, should not be per-
mitted to get grain from the plentiful province, without
particular license from court, which cost no small trou-
ble and expense. In sea-port towns, wheat should be
imported ; and soon after, without leave of the magis-
trates, the owner should only have liberty to export
one quarter or one third of it. They are now wiser ;
and through all the kingdom the corn trade is quite

* Our authors were much more favorably inclined to bounties than
Adam Smith, and disagreed with him on the subject of the bounty on
the exportation of corn, though they were still in favor of restricting it
within narrower limits by reducing the rate of the market price at which
it might be demanded. The reasoning, however, in the subsequent sec-
tion is wholly in favor of Adam Smith's doctrine, that this bounty ia
inexpedient — W. PUILLIPS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 407

free ; and what is more, all sorts of grain may be ex-
ported upon French bottoms only, for their encourage-
ment, copying, we presume, our law, whenever the
market prices for three following days shall not exceed
about forty-five shillings sterling a quarter for wheat.
Our reason for mentioning this is only to show, that
other nations are changing their destructive measures,
and that it behoves us to be careful that we pay the
greatest attention to our essential interests.

In inland high countries, remote from the sea, and
whose rivers are small, running from the country, not
to it, as is the case of Switzerland, great distress may
arise from a course of bad harvests, if public granaries
are not provided and kept well stored. Anciently, too,
before navigation was so general, ships so plenty, and
commercial connexions so well established, even mari-
time countries might be occasionally distressed by bad
crops. But such is now the facility of communication
between those countries, that an unrestrained com-
merce can scarce ever fail of procuring a sufficiency
for any of them. If, indeed, any government is so
imprudent, as to lay its hands on imported corn, forbid
its exportation, or compel its sale at limited prices,
there the people may suffer some famine from mer-
chants avoiding their ports. But wherever commerce
is known to be always free, and the . merchant abso-
lute master of his commodity, as in Holland, there will
always be a reasonable supply.

When an exportation of corn takes place, occasioned
by a higher price hi some foreign country, it is com-
mon to raise a clamor, on the supposition that we shall
thereby produce a domestic famine. Then follows a
prohibition, founded on the imaginary distress of the
poor. The poor, to be sure, if in distress, should be
relieved ; but if the farmer could have a high price for

408 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

his corn from the foreign demand, must he, by a pro-
hibition of exportation, be compelled to take a lo\v price,
not of the poor only, but of every one that eats bread,
even the richest? The duty of relieving the poor is
incumbent on the rich ; but, by this operation, the whole
burden of it is laid on the farmer, who is to relieve the
rich at the same time. Of the poor, too, those who
are maintained by the parishes have no right to claim
this sacrifice of the farmer ; as, while they have their
allowance, it makes no difference to them whether
bread be cheap or dear. Those working poor, who
now mind business five or four days in the week, if
bread should .be so dear as to oblige them to work
the whole six, required by the commandment, do not
seem to be aggrieved so as to have a right to public
redress. There will then remain comparatively only
a few families in every district, who from sickness or
a great number of children, will be so distressed by a
high price of corn as to need relief; and these should
be taken care of, by particular benefactions, without
restraining the farmer's profit.

Those who fear, that exportation may so far drain
the country of com as to starve ourselves, fear what
never did, nor ever can happen. They may as well,
wrhen they view the tide ebbing towards the sea, fear
that all the water will leave the river. The price of
corn, like water, will find its own level. The more
we export, the dearer it becomes at home. The more
is received abroad, the cheaper it becomes there ;
and as soon as these prices are equal, the exportation
stops of course. As the seasons vary in different coun-
tries, the calamity of a bad harvest is never universal.
If, then, all ports wrere always open, and all commerce
free, every maritime country would generally eat bread
at the medium price, or average of all the different

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 409

harvests, which would probably tie more equal than
we can make it by our artificial regulations, and
therefore a more steady encouragement to agriculture.
The nations would all have bread at this middle price;
and that nation, which at any time inhumanly refuses
to relieve the distresses of another nation, deserves no
compassion when in distress itself.

We shall here end these reflections, with our most
ardent wishes for the prosperity of our country; and
our hopes, that the doctrine we have endeavoured to
inculcate, as to the necessity of protection and free-
dom, in order to insure success in trade, will be ever
attended to by the legislature in forming their resolu-
tions relating to the commerce of these kingdoms.

REFLECTIONS ON COIN IN GENERAL, BEING AN
APPENDIX TO THE ABOVE ESSAY.

PREFACE.

" THE clamor made of the great inconveniences, suf-
fered by the community in regard to the coin of this
kingdom, prompted me in the beginning of his Majes-
ty's reign to give the public some reflections on coin
in general, on gold and silver as merchandise, and 1
added my thoughts on paper passing as money.

"As I trust the principles then laid down are founded
in truth, and will serve now as well as then, though
made fourteen years ago, to change any calculation
would be of little use.

"Some sections in the foregoing essay of Principles

* This Preface was written entirely by Mr. Whatley. — W. T. F.

VOL. ii. 52 ii

410 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

of Trade, which might in this Appendix appear like a
repetition, have been omitted.

" I always resolved not to enter into any particular
deduction from laws relating to coin, or into any minu-
tiae as to accurate nicety in weights. My intention
was, and still is, no more than to endeavour to show,
as briefly as possible, that what relates to coin is not
of such a complex, abstruse nature as it is generally
made, and that no more than common justice with
common sense is required in all regulations concern-
ing it.

" Perhaps more weighty concerns may have prevent-
ed government doing more in regard to coin, than
ordering quarter-guineas to be made, which till this
reign had not been done.

" But, as I now judge by the late act relating to gold
coin, that the legislature is roused, possibly they may
consider still more of that, as well as of silver coin.

" Should these reflections prove of any public utility,
my end will be answered."

REFLECTIONS.

1. Coins are pieces of metal on which an impression
is struck, which impression is understood by the legis-
lature to ascertain the weight and intrinsic value, or
worth, of each piece.

2. The real value of coins depends not on a piece
being called a guinea, a crown, or a shilling ; but the
true worth of any particular piece of gold or silver is
what such piece contains of fine or pure gold or silver.

3. Silver and copper being mixed with gold, and
copper with silver, are generally understood to render
those metals more durable when circulating in coins;
yet air and moisture evidently affect copper, whether by

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 411

itself or mixed with o;her metal; whereas pure gold
and silver are much less affected or corroded thereby.

4. The quantity of silver and copper so mixed by
way of alloy is fixed by the legislature. When melted
with pure metal, or added or extracted to make a law-
ful proportion, both gold and silver are brought to
what is called standard. This alloy of silver and cop-
per is never reckoned of any value. The standard,
once fixed, should ever be invariable ; since any altera-
tion would be followed by great confusion and detri-
ment to the state.

5. It is for public convenience and for facilitating
the bartering between mankind for their respective
wants, that coins were invented and made ; for, were
there no coins, gold and silver might be made or left
pure ; and what we now call a guinea's worth of any
thing might be cut off from gold, and a crown's worth
from silver, and might serve, though not so commo-
diously as coin.

6. Hence it is evident, that, in whatever shape, form,
or quality these metals are, they are brought to be the
most common measure between man and man, serving
to barter against or exchange for all kinds of commodi-
ties ; and consequently are no more than an universal
accepted merchandise ; for gold and silver in bullion,
that is to say, in an uncoined mass, and gold or silver
in coin, being of equal weight, purity, and fineness,
must be of equal value the one to the other ; for the
stamp on either of these metals, duly proportioned, nei-
ther adds to nor takes from their intrinsic value.*

7. The prices of gold and silver, as merchandise,

* There is an incidental value, which arises from the authority of the
state, which is in the nature of a credit or assurance of value given by
the state, that either issues or authorizes the issue of the coin. —
W. T. F.

412 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

must in all countries, like other commodities, fluctuate
and vary according to the demand, and no detriment
can arise therefrom more than from the rise and fall of
any other merchandise. But if, when coined, a due
proportion of these metals, the one to the other, be not
established, the disproportion will be felt and proved;
and that metal wherein the excess in the proportion
is allowed, will preferably be made use of, either in
exportation or in manufacture, as is the case now in
this kingdom in regard to silver coin, and which in
some measure is the occasion of its scarcity.

For so long as 15 ounces and about one fifth of
pure silver in Great Britain are ordained and deemed
to be equal to one ounce of pure gold, whilst in neigh-
bouring states, as France and Holland, the propor-
tion is fixed only 141 ounces of pure silver to one
ounce of pure gold, it is very evident, that our silver
when coined will always be the most acceptable mer-
chandise by near five hi the hundred, and consequent-
ly more liable to be taken away or melted down, than
before it received the impression at the mint.

8. Sixty-two shillings only are ordained by law to
be coined from 12 ounces of standard silver. Now, fol-
lowing the proportion above mentioned of 15} to 14y,
no regard being necessary as to alloy, 65 shillings
should be the quantity cut out of those 12 ounces.

9. No everlasting, invariable fixation for coining can
be made from a medium of the market price of gold
and silver, though that medium might with ease be
ascertained, so as to hinder either coined gold or silver
from becoming a merchandise ; for, whenever the price
shall rise above that medium, so as to give a profit,
whatever is coined will be made a merchandise. This
in the nature of things must come from the general
exchanging, circulation, and fluctuation in trade, and

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 413

cannot be hindered ; but assuredly the false proportions
may be amended by the legislature, and settled as the
proportion between gold and silver is in other nations ;
so as not to make, as now is the case, our coined silver
a merchandise, so much to be preferred to the same
silver uncoined.

10. What has been said seems to be self-evident;
but the following calculations made on the present cur-
rent price of silver and gold may serve to prove beyond
all doubt, that the proportion now fixed between gold
and silver should be altered and fixed as in other
countries.

By law, 62 shillings are to be coined out of one
pound or 12 ounces of standard silver. This is 62 pence
an ounce. Melt these 62 shillings, and in a bar this
pound weight at market will fetch 68 pence an ounce,
or 68 shillings the pound. The difference, therefore,
between coined and uncoined silver in Great Britain is
now nine and two thirds per cent.

Out of a pound or 12 ounces of standard gold, 44
guineas and a half are ordained to be coined. This is
£3. 17s. lOid. an ounce. Now the current market
price of standard gold is <£3. 19s. an ounce, which
makes not quite one and a half per cent difference
between the coined and uncoined gold.

The state out of duties imposed pays for the charge
of coining, as indeed it ought, for it is for public con-
venience, as already said, that coins are made. It is
the current market price of gold and silver that must
govern the carrying it to the mint. It is absurd to
think, that any one should carry gold to be coined that
should cost more than £3. 17 s. 10£d. an ounce, or silver
more than 62 pence the ounce ; and as absurd would
it be to pretend, that those prices only shall be the
constant, invariable prices. It is contended, that there

414 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

is not a proper proportion fixed in the value of one
metal to another, and this requires alteration.

11. It may be urged, that should the legislature fix
the proportion of silver to gold, as in other countries,
by ordering 65 shillings instead of 62 to be cut out of
a pound of standard silver, yet still there would be
four and two thirds per cent difference between coined
and uncoined silver; whereas there is but about one
and a half per cent difference in gold.

On this we shall observe, that the course of trade,
not to mention extraordinary accidents, will make one
metal more in request at one time than another; and the
legislature in no one particular country can bias, or pre-
scribe rules or laws to influence, such demand, which
ever must depend on the great chain of things in which
all the operations of this world are linked. Freedom
and security only are wanted in trade; nor does coin
require more, if a just proportion in the metals be
settled.

12. To return to gold; it is matter of surprise, that
the division of the piece called a guinea has not been
made smaller than just one half, as it now is ; that is,
into quarters, thirds, and two-thirds. Hereby the want
of silver coin might be greatly provided for, and those
pieces, together with the light silver coin, which can
only now remain with us, would sufficiently serve the
uses in circulation.

In Portugal, where almost all their coin is gold,
there are divisions of the moedas, or 27 shilling pieces,
into tenths, sixths, quarters, thirds, halves, and two-
thirds ; of the moeda and one-third, or 36 shilling piece,
into eighths, quarters, and halves.

13. That to the lightness of the silver coin now
remaining in Great Britain we owe all the silver coin
we now have, any person with weights and scales may

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 415

prove ; as upwards of 70 shillings coined in the reign
of King William, or dexterously counterfeited by false
coiners, will scarce weigh 12 ounces or a pound troy.

14. All the art of man can never hinder a constant
exportation and importation of gold and silver to make
up for the different calls and balances that may happen
in trade ; for, were silver to be coined as above, 65 shil-
lings out of a pound troy weight of standard silver,
if those 65 shillings would sell at a price that makes
it worth while to melt or export them, they must and
will be considered and used as a merchandise ; and the
same will hold as to gold.

Though the proportion of about fourteen and a half
of pure silver to one of pure gold in neighbouring states
be now fixed in regard to their coin, and it is submitted
such proportion should be attended to in this kingdom,
yet that proportion may be subject to alteration; for
this plain reason, that, should the silver mines -produce
a quantity of that metal so as to make it greatly abound
more in proportion than it now does, and the gold
mines produce no more than now they do, more silver
must be requisite to purchase gold.

15. That the welfare of any state depends on its
keeping all its gold and silver either in bullion or in
coin is a very narrow principle; all the republics we
know of wisely think otherwise. It is an utter impos-
sibility, nor should it ever be aimed at; for gold and
silver are as clearly a merchandise as lead and tin,
and consequently should have a perfect freedom and
liberty,* coined and uncoined, to go and to come, pass

* As a general principle this is unquestionably true ; but it must be
general or every nation with whom commerce is extensively carried on
must alike adopt it, or the principle immediately assumes an exception-
able character, and nations liable to be affected by it must provide means
to counteract the effects of a sudden drain of the usual circulating

416 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

and repass, from one country to another in the general
circulation and fluctuation of commerce, which will
ever carry a general balance with it ; for we should as
soon give our lead, our tin, or any other product of our
land or industry, to those who want them, without an
equivalent in some shape or other, as we should gold
or silver, which it would be absurd to imagine can
ever be done by our nation or by any nation upon
earth.

16. From Spain and Portugal come the greatest part
of gold and silver, and the Spanish court very wisely
permits the exportation of it on paying a duty, as in
Great Britain lead and tin do when exported ; whereas
heretofore, and as it still continues in Portugal, penal
laws were enacted against the sending it out of the
country. Surely princes by enacting such laws could
not think they had it in their power to decree and
establish, that their subjects or themselves should not
give an equivalent for what was furnished to them !

17. It is not our intention to descend into, or to dis-
cuss minutely, particular notions or systems, such as,
that silver and not gold should be the standard money
or coin ; that copper is an unfit material for money ;
and, that paper circulating as, and catted artificial
money, is detrimental. Yet, as these doctrines seem to
proceed from considering bullion and money or coin
in a different light from what we apprehend and have
laid down, we will observe,

18. That it matters not whether silver or gold be
called standard money ; but it seems most rational, that
the most scarce and precious metal should be the unit
or standard.

medium, because the absence of a great quantity of the medium alters
the price of exchange, or relative exchange of current money for neces-
sary labor and subsistence, and depreciates other property. — W. T. F.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 417

19. That, as to copper, it is as fit for money or a
counter as gold and silver, provided it be coined of a
proper weight and fineness ; and just so much will be
useful as will serve to make up small parts in exchanges
between man and man.

20. That, as to paper money, it is far from being
detrimental ; on the contrary, it is highly profitable, as
its quick passing between mankind, instead of telling
over or weighing metal in coin or bullion, is a gain of
what is most precious in life, which is time. And
there is nothing clearer, than that those who must be
concerned in counting and weighing, being at liberty
to employ themselves on other purposes, are an addition
of hands in the community.

The idea of the too great extension of credit, by the
circulation of paper for money, is evidently as erroneous
as the doctrine of the non- exportation of gold and
silver in bullion or coin ; for, were it not certain, that
paper could command the equivalent of its agreed-for
value, or that gold and silver in bullion or coin, export-
ed, would be returned in the course of trade in some
other merchandise, neither paper would be used nor
the metals exported. It is by means of the produce
of the land and the happy situation of this island,
joined to the industry of its inhabitants, that those
much adored metals, gold and silver, have been pro-
cured ; and so long as the sea does not overflow the
land and industry continues, so long will those metals
not be wanting. And paper in the general chain of
credit and commerce is as useful as they are, since
the issuers or coiners of that paper are understood to
have some equivalent to answer for what the paper is
valued at, and no metal or coin can do more than find
its value.

Moreover, as incontestable advantages of paper we

VOL. ii. 53

418 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

must add, that the charge of coining or making it is
by no means proportionate to that of coining of metals ;
nor is it subject to waste by long use, or impaired by
adulteration, sweating, or filing, as coins may.

NOTIONS

CONCERNING TRADE AND MERCHANTS.

1. WERE it possible for men, remote from each other,
to know easily one another's wants and abundances,
and practicable for them on all occasions conveniently
to meet and make fair exchanges of their respective
commodities, there would then be no use of the middle
man or merchant ; such a profession would not exist.

2. But, since that is not possible, were all govern-
ments to appoint a number of public officers, whose
duty and business it should be to inform themselves
thoroughly of those wants and abundances, and to pro-
cure, by proper management, all the exchanges that
would tend to increase the general happiness, such
officers, if they could well discharge their trust, would
deserve honors and salaries equivalent to their industry
and fidelity.

3. But, as in large communities, and for the more
general occasions of mankind, such officers have never
been appointed, perhaps from a conviction that it would
be impracticable for such an appointment effectually to
answer its purpose, it seems necessary to permit men,
who for the possible profits in prospect will undertake
it, to fetch and carry, at all distances, the produce of
other men's industry, and thereby assist those .useful
exchanges.

4. As the persons primarily interested in these ex-

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 419

changes cannot conveniently meet to make known their
wants and abundances, and to bargain for exchanges,
those who transport the goods should be interested to
study the probability of these wants, and where to find
the means of supplying them ; and, since there exist
no salaries or public rewards for them in proportion to
their skill, industry, and utility to the people in general,
nor to make them any compensation for their losses
arising from inexpertness or from accident, it seems
reasonable that, for their encouragement to follow the
business, they should be left to make such profits by it
as they can, which, where it is open to all, will probably
seldom be extravagant. And perhaps by this means
the business will be better done for the general advan-
tage, and those who do it more properly rewarded
according to their merits, than would be the case, were
special officers to be appointed for that service.

A THOUGHT
CONCERNING THE SUGAR ISLANDS.

SHOULD it be agreed, and become a part of the law
of nations, that the cultivators of the earth are not to be
molested or interrupted in their peaceable and use-
ful employment, the inhabitants of the sugar islands
would come under the protection of such a regulation,
which would be a great advantage to the nations who at
present hold those islands ; since the cost of sugar to the
consumer in those nations consists, not only in the price
he pays for it by the pound, but in the accumulated
charge of all the taxes he pays in every war to fit out
fleets and maintain troops for the defence of the islands
that raise the sugar, and the ships that bring it home.

420 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

But the expense of treasure is not all. A celebrated
philosophical writer remarks, that, when he considered
the wars made in Africa for prisoners to raise sugar in
America, the numbers slain in those wars, the numbers
that, being crowded in ships, perish in the transporta-
tion, and the numbers that die under the severities of
slavery, he could scarce look on a morsel of sugar with-
out conceiving it spotted with human blood. If he had
considered also the blood of one another which the
white natives shed in fighting for those islands, he
would have imagined his sugar not as spotted only, but
as thoroughly dyed red.

On these accounts I am persuaded that the subjects
of the Emperor of Germany, and the Empress of Rus-
sia, who have no sugar islands, consume sugar cheaper
at Vienna and Moscow, with all the charge of transport-
ing it, after its arrival in Europe, than the citizens of
London and Paris. And I sincerely believe, that, if
France and England were to decide by throwing dice,
which should have the whole of their sugar islands, the
loser in the throw would be the gainer. The future
expense of defending them would be saved ; the su-
gars would be bought cheaper by all Europe, if the in-
habitants might make it without interruption ; and, who-
ever imported the sugar, the same revenue might be
raised by duties at the custom-house of the nation that
consumed it. And, on the whole, I conceive it would
be better for the nations now possessing sugar colonies,
to give up their claim to them, let them govern them-
selves, and put them under the protection of all the
powers of Europe as neutral countries open to the com-
merce of all, the profit of the present monopolies being
by no means equivalent to the expense of maintaining
them.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 421

OF THE PAPER MONEY

OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

MTTCH conversation having arisen lately on the sub-
ject of this money, and few persons being well ac-
quainted with the nature of it, you may possibly oblige
many of your readers by the following account of it.

When Great Britain commenced the present war
upon the colonies, they had neither arms nor ammuni-
tion, nor money to purchase them or to pay soldiers.
The new government had not immediately the con-
sistence necessary for collecting heavy taxes ; nor would
taxes that could be raised within the year during peace,
have been sufficient for a year's expense in time of
war ; they therefore printed a quantity of paper bills,
each expressing to be of the value of a certain number
of Spanish dollars, from one to thirty ; with these they
paid, clothed, and fed their troops, fitted out ships, and
supported the war during five years against one of the
most powerful nations of Europe.

The paper thus issued, passed current in all the
internal commerce of the United States at par with sil-
ver during the first year ; supplying the place of the gold
and silver formerly current, but which was sent out of
the country to purchase arms, &c., or to defray ex-
penses of the army in Canada ; but the great num-
ber of troops necessary to be kept on foot to defend a
coast of near five hundred leagues in length, from an ene-
my, who, being masters at sea, could land troops where
they pleased, occasioned such a demand for money, and
such frequent additional emissions of new bills, that
the quantity became much greater than was wanted
for the purposes of commerce; and, the commerce

VOL. II. JJ

422 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

being diminished by the war, the surplus quantity of
cash was by that means also proportionally augmented.

It has been long and often observed, that when the
current money of a country is augmented beyond the
occasions for money, as a medium of commerce, its value
as money diminishes. Its interest is reduced, and the
principal sinks, if some means are not found to take
off the surplus quantity. Silver may be carried out of
the country that produces it, into other countries, and
thereby prevent too great a fall of its value in that
country. But, when by this means it grows more plen-
tiful in all other countries, nothing prevents its sinking
hi value. Thus within three hundred years since the
discovery of America, and the vast quantities of gold
and silver imported from thence, and spread over
Europe and the rest of the world, those metals have
sunk hi value four fifths, that is, five ounces of silver
will not purchase more labor now than an ounce would
have done before that discovery.

Had Spain been able to confine all that treasure
within its own territories, silver would probably have
been there of no more value by this time than iron or
lead. The exportation has kept its value on a level
with its value in other parts of the world. Paper money
not being easily received out of the country that makes
it, if the quantity becomes excessive, the depreciation
is quicker and greater.

Thus the excessive quantities which necessity ob-
liged the Americans to issue for continuing the war,
occasioned a depreciation of value, which, commencing
towards the end of 1776, has gone on augmenting, till
at the beginning of the present year, fifty, sixty, and
as far as seventy dollars in paper were reckoned not
more than equal to one dollar in silver, and the prices
of all things rose in proportion.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 423

Before the depreciation commenced, the Congress,
fearing it, stopped for a time the emission of new bills,
and resolved to supply their occasions by borrowing.
Those who lent them the paper money at that time
and until March, 1778, fixed their property and pre-
vented its depreciation ; the interest being regularly
paid by bills of exchange on France, which supports
the value of the principal sums lent.

These loans not being sufficient, the Congress were
forced to print more bills, and depreciation proceeded.
The Congress would borrow no more on the former
conditions of paying the interest in French money at
Paris ; but great sums were offered and lent them on
the terms of being paid the interest, and repaid the
principal in the same bills in America.

These loans in some degree lessened, but did not
quite take away, the necessity of new emissions ; so that
it at length arrived at the excessive difference between
the value of paper and silver, that is above mentioned.

To put an end to this evil, which destroyed all cer-
tainty in commerce, the Congress first resolved to dimin-
ish the quantity gradually by taxes, which, though
nominally vastly great, were really less heavy than they
appeared to be, and were readily paid. By these taxes
fifteen millions of Spanish dollars, of the two hundred
millions extant, are to be brought in monthly and burnt.
This operation will destroy the whole quantity, to wit,
two hundred millions, in about fourteen months. Thirty
millions have already been so destroyed.

To prevent in the mean time the farther progress of
the depreciation, and give some kind of determinate
value to the paper, it was ordained, that, for every
sum of forty dollars payable by any person as tax, he
might discharge himself by paying one dollar in silver.
Whether this expedient will produce the effect intend-
ed or not, experience and time must discover.

424 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

The general effect of the depreciation among the
inhabitants of the States has been this, that it has
operated as a gradual tax upon them, their business
has been done and paid for by the paper money, and
every man has paid his share of the tax according to
the time he retained any of the money in his hands,
and to the depreciation within that time. Thus it has
proved a tax on money, a kind of property very diffi-
cult to be taxed in any other mode ; and it has fallen
more equally than many other taxes, as those people
paid most, who, being richest, had most money passing
through their hands.

With regard to the paper money or bills borrowed
by the Congress, it appears by the above account to be
under two different descriptions.

First, the quantity of bills borrowed before the de-
preciation, the interest of which in silver was to be
and is paid. The principal of this sum is considered
as equal in value to so many dollars of silver as were
borrowed in paper, and will be paid in silver accord-
ingly.

Secondly, the quantities of bills borrowed in differ-
ent stages of the depreciation down to the present
time. These sums are, by a resolution of Congress, to
be repaid in silver according to the value they were
of in silver at the time they were lent ; and the inter-
est is to be paid at the same rate. Thus those lenders
have their property secured from the loss by deprecia-
tion subsequent to the time of their loan.

All the inhabitants are satisfied and pleased with
this arrangement, their public debt being by this means
reduced to a small sum. And the new paper money,
which bears interest, and for the payment of which
solid funds are provided, is actually in credit equal to
real silver.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 425

If any persons living in distant countries have, through
their absence from their property in America, suffered
loss by not having it timely fixed in the several loans
above mentioned, it is not doubted but that, upon an
application to Congress stating the case, they will meet
with redress.

The real money used in the United States is French,
Spanish, Portuguese, and English coins, gold and silver.
The most common is Spanish milled dollars, worth five
livres five sols tournois.

The nominal money is generally paper, reckoned in
pounds, shillings, and pence, of different value in the
different States when compared with real money, and
that value often changing, so that nothing certain can
be said of it. Everywhere the accounts are kept in
the nominal pounds, shillings, and pence, the pound con-
taining twenty shillings, and the shilling twelve pence,
whatever may be the real value.

Bills of exchange are frequently drawn on Europe ;
the rate of exchange differing in different States, and
fluctuating in the same State, occasioned by the greater
or less plenty of bills or of demand for others ; they
are commonly drawn at thirty days' sight.

The usages in buying and selling merchandises, are
much the same as in Europe, except that in Virginia
the planter carries his tobacco to magazines, where it
is inspected by officers, who ascertain its quality and
give receipts expressing the quantity. The merchants
receive these receipts in payment for goods, and after-
wards draw the tobacco out of the magazines for ex-
portation. Weights and measures are uniform in all
the States, following the standard of Great Britain.

Money is lent either upon bond or on mortgage, pay-
able in a year with interest. The interest differs in
the different States from five to seven per cent.

VOL. ii. 54 JJ*

426 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Goods are generally imported on eighteen months'
credit from Europe, sold in the country at twelve
months' credit

Billets or promissory notes, payable to the creditor
or order, are in use, and d^mandable when due, as
well as accepted bills of exchange, without any days
of grace, but by particular favor.

COMPARISON

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

IN REGARD TO

THE BASIS OF CREDIT IN THE TWO COUNTRIES.

This paper was written in the year 1777, while Franklin was
one of the Commissioners from the United States in France. The
object was to produce in Europe a just impression of the resources
and political condition and prospects of the United States, with the
view of encouraging governments and private capitalists to loan
money to the American Congress. It was translated into various
languages and widely circulated. — EDITOR.

IN borrowing money, a man's credit depends on
some, or all, of the following particulars.

First. His known conduct respecting former loans,
and his punctuality in discharging them.

Secondly. His industry.

Thirdly. His frugality.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 427

Fourthly. The amount and the certainty of his in-
come, and the freedom of his estate from the incum-
brances of prior debts.

Fifthly. His well-founded prospects of greater future
ability, by the improvement of his estate hi value, and
by aids from others.

Sixthly. His known prudence in managing his
general affairs, and the advantage they will probably
receive from the loan which he desires.

Seventhly. His known probity and honest character,
manifested by his voluntary discharge of debts, which
he could not have been legally compelled to pay.
The circumstances, which give credit to an individual,
ought to have, and will have, their weight upon the
lenders of money to public bodies or nations. If then
we consider and compare Britain and America hi
these several particulars, upon the question, "To which
is it safest to lend money?" we shall find,

1. Respecting former loans, that America, who
borrowed ten millions during the last war, for the
maintenance of her army of twenty-five thousand men
and other charges, had faithfully discharged and paid
that debt, and all her other debts, in 1772. Whereas
Britain, during those ten years of peace and profitable
commerce, had made little or no reduction of her debt ;
but on the contrary, from time to time, diminished the
hopes of her creditors by a wanton diversion and
misapplication of the sinking fund destined for dis-
charging it.

2. Respecting industry; every man in America is
employed; the greater part in cultivating their own
lands, the rest in handicrafts, navigation, and commerce.
An idle man there is a rarity ; idleness and inutility
are disgraceful. In England the number of that char-
acter is immense; fashion has spread it far and wide.

428 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Hence the embarrassments of private fortunes, and the
daily bankruptcies, arising from a universal fondness
for appearance and expensive pleasures; and hence,
in some degree, the mismanagement of public busi-
ness ; for habits of business, and ability in it, are
acquired only by practice ; and, where universal dissi-
pation and the perpetual pursuit of amusement are
the mode, the youth educated in it can rarely after-
wards acquire that patient attention and close appli-
cation to affairs, which are so necessary to a statesman
charged with the care of national welfare. Hence
their frequent errors in policy, and hence the weariness
at public councils, and backwardness in going to them,
the constant unwillingness to engage in any measure
that requires thought and consideration, and the readi-
ness for postponing every new proposition ; which
postponing is therefore the only part of business they
come to be expert in, an expertness produced neces-
sarily by so much daily practice, Whereas, hi America,
men bred to close employment in their private affairs
attend with ease to those of the public when engaged
in them, and nothing fails through negligence.

3. Respecting frugality; the manner of living in.
America is more simple and less expensive than in
England ; plain tables, plain clothing, and plain fur-
niture in houses prevail, with few carriages of pleasure.
There an expensive appearance hurts credit, and is
avoided ; in England it is often assumed to gain credit,
and continued to ruin. Respecting public affairs, the dif-
ference is still greater. In England the salaries of officers
and emoluments of office are enormous. The King has
a million sterling per annum, and yet cannot maintain
his family free of debt; secretaries of state, lords of
the treasury, admiralty, &c., have vast appointments ; an
auditor of the exchequer has sixpence in the pound,

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 429

or a fortieth part, of all the public money expended by
the nation, so that, when a war costs forty millions,
one million is paid to him ; an inspector of the mint,
in the last new coinage, received as his fee £ 65,000
sterling per annum; to all which rewards no service
these gentlemen can render the public is by any means
equivalent. All this is paid by the people, who are
oppressed by taxes so occasioned, and thereby ren-
dered less able to contribute to the payment of
necessary national debts. In America, salaries, where
indispensable, are extremely low; but much of the
public business is done gratis. The honor of serving
the public ably and faithfully is deemed sufficient.
Public spirit really exists there, and has great effects.
In England it is universally deemed a nonentity, and
whoever pretends to it is laughed at as a fool, or sus-
pected as a knave. The committees of Congress,
which form the board of war, the board of treasury,
the board of foreign affairs, the naval board, that for
accounts, &c., all attend the business of their respective
functions without any salary or emolument whatever,
though they spend in it much more of their time, than
any lord of the treasury or admiralty in England can
spare from his amusements. A British minister lately
computed, that the whole expense of the Americans
in their civil government, over three millions of people,
amounted to but £70,000 sterling, and drew from
thence a conclusion, that they ought to be taxed, until
their expense was equal in proportion to that which it
costs Great Britain to govern eight millions. He had
no idea of a contrary conclusion, that, if three millions
may be well governed for £70,000, eight millons may
be as well governed for three times that sum, and that
therefore the expense of his own government should

430 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

be diminished. In that corrupted nation, no man is
ashamed of being concerned in lucrative government
jobs, in which the public money is egregiously misap-
plied and squandered, the treasury pillaged, and more
numerous and heavy taxes accumulated, to the great
oppression of the people. But the prospect of a
greater number of such jobs by a war is an induce-
ment with many to cry out for war upon all occasions,
and to oppose every proposition of peace. Hence the
constant increase of the national debt, and the absolute
improbability of its ever being discharged.

4. Respecting the amount and certainty of income,
and solidity of security ; the whole thirteen States of
America are engaged for the payment of every debt
contracted by the Congress, and the debt to be con-
tracted by the present war is the only debt they will
have to pay; all, or nearly all, the former debts of
particular colonies being already discharged. Whereas
England will have to pay, not only the enormous debt
this war must occasion, but all their vast preceding
debt, or the interest of it; and, while America is
enriching itself by prizes made upon the British com-
merce, more than it ever did by any commerce of its
own, under the restraints of a British monopoly, Brit-
ain is growing poorer by the diminution of its reve-
nues, and of course less able to discharge the present
indiscreet increase of its expenses.

5. Respecting prospects of greater future ability,
Britain has none such. Her islands are circumscribed
by the ocean ; and, excepting a few parks or forests,
she has no new land to cultivate, and cannot therefore
extend her improvements. Her numbers, too, instead
of increasing from increased subsistence, are contin-
ually diminishing from growing luxury, and the in-

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 431

creasing difficulties of maintaining families, which of
course discourage early marriages. Thus she will
have fewer people to assist in paying her debts, and
that diminishing number will be poorer. America, on
the contrary, has, besides her lands already cultivated,
a vast territory yet to be cultivated; which, being cul-
tivated, continually increases in value with the increase
of people; and the people, who double themselves
by a natural propagation every twenty-five years, will
double yet faster by the accession of strangers, as
long as lands are to be had for new families ; so that
every twenty years there will be a double number of
inhabitants obliged to discharge the public debts ; and
those inhabitants, being more opulent, may pay their
shares with greater ease.

6. Respecting prudence in general affairs, and the
advantages to be expected from the loan desired,
the Americans are cultivators of land ; those engaged
in fishery and commerce are few, compared with the
others. They have ever conducted their several
governments with wisdom, avoiding wars and vain,
expensive projects, delighting only in their peaceable
occupations, which must, considering the extent of
their uncultivated territory, find them employment still
for ages. Whereas England, ever unquiet, ambitious,
avaricious, imprudent, and quarrelsome, is half of the
time engaged in war, always at an expense infinitely
greater than the advantages to be obtained by it, if
successful. Thus they made war against Spain in
1739, for a claim of about £ 95,000, (scarce a groat
for each individual of the nation), and spent forty
millions sterling in the war, and the lives of fifty thou-
sand men; and finally made peace without obtaining
satisfaction for the sum claimed. Indeed, there is

432 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

scarce a nation in Europe, against which she has not
made war on some frivolous pretext or other, and
thereby imprudently accumulated a debt, that has
brought her on the verge of bankruptcy. But the
most indiscreet of all her wars is the present against
America, with whom she might for ages have preserved
her profitable connexion only by a just and equitable
conduct. She is now acting like a mad shop-keeper,
who, by beating those that pass his doors, attempts to
make them come in and be his customers. America
cannot submit to such treatment, without being first
ruined, and, being ruined, her custom will be worth
nothing. England, to effect this, is increasing her
debt, and irretrievably ruining herself. America, on
the other hand, aims only to establish her liberty, and
that freedom of commerce which will be advantageous
to all Europe ; and, by abolishing that monopoly which
she labored under, she will profit infinitely more than
enough to repay any debt, which she may contract to
accomplish it.

7. Respecting character in the honest payment of
debts, the punctuality with which America has dis-
charged her public debts was shown under the first
head. And the general good disposition of the people
to such punctuality has been manifested in their faithful
payment of private debts to England, since the com-
mencement of this war. There were not wanting
some politicians (in America), who proposed stopping
that payment) until peace should be restored, alleging,
that in the usual course of commerce, and of the credit
given, there was always a debt existing equal to the
trade of eighteen months ; that, the trade amounting to
five millions sterling per annum, the debt must be
seven millions and a half; that this sum paid to the

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 433

British merchants would operate to prevent that dis-
tress, intended to be brought upon Britain by our
stoppage of commerce with her; for the merchants,
receiving this money, and no orders with it for further
supplies, would either lay it out in public funds, or in
employing manufacturers to accumulate goods for a
future hungry market in America upon an expected
accommodation, by which means the funds would be
kept up and the manufacturers prevented from mur-
muring. But against this it was alleged, that injuries
from ministers should not be revenged on merchants;
that the credit was hi consequence of private contracts
made in confidence of good faith ; that these ought to
'be held sacred and faithfully complied with ; for that,
whatever public utility might be supposed to arise from
a breach of private faith, it was unjust, and would in
the end be found unwise, honesty being in truth the
best policy. On this principle the proposition was
universally rejected ; and though the English prosecuted
the war with unexampled barbarity, burning our de-
fenceless towns in the midst of winter, and arming
savages against us, the debt was punctually paid, and
the merchants of London have testified to the Parliix-
ment, and will testify to all the world, that from their
experience in dealing with us they had, before the war,
no apprehension of our unfairness, and that, since the
war, they have been convinced that their good opinion
of us was well founded. England, on the contrary,
an old, corrupt government, extravagant and profligate
nation, sees herself deep in debt, which she is in no
condition to pay, and yet is madly and dishonestly
running deeper, without any possibility of discharging
her debt but by a public bankruptcy.

It appears, therefore, from the general industry, fru-
gality, ability, prudence, and virtue of America, that

VOL. II. 55 KK

434 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

she is a much safer debtor than Britain ; to say nothing
of the satisfaction generous minds must have in re-
flecting, that by loans to America they are opposing
tyranny, and aiding the cause of liberty, which is the
cause of all mankind.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 435

REFLECTIONS

ON THE

AUGMENTATION OF WAGES,

WHICH WILL BE OCCASIONED IN EUROPE BY THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION.

I know not whether these Reflections have ever before appeared
in an English dress. They are here presented in a translation from
the French, as published in CASTERA'S edition of the author's wri-
tings. Castera says, that a copy was found among Franklin's
papers, and inserted in the Journal d? Economic Publique, (du 10
Ventos*! an V.) ; but, not being able to procure that journal, he trans-
lated it from the German version contained in the Minerva, edited
by Archenholz. The following is a translation from Castera's ver-
sion ; and, after having thus passed through two languages, the style
and other characteristics of the original must of course be essential-
ly changed, and not for the better. But the sentiments and train of
reasoning are perhaps retained with sufficient accuracy, and, even
in this imperfect form, it may be deemed worthy of the author.
Whether his views are not more ingenious than sound, and whether
they have been confirmed by experience, are at least questionable
points. The paper was probably written in France, during the
American Revolution, or immediately after the peace. — EDITOR.

THE independence and prosperity of the United
States of America will raise the price of wages in Eu-
rope, an advantage of which I believe no one has yet
spoken.

The low rate of wages is one of the greatest defects
b the political associations of Europe, or rather of the
old world.

436 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

If the term wages be taken in its widest signification,
it will be found that almost all the citizens of a large
state receive and pay wages. I shall confine my re-
marks, however, to one description of wages, the only
one with which government should intermeddle, or
which requires its care. I mean the wages of the low-
est class, those men without property, without capital,
who live solely by the labor of their hands. This is
always the most numerous class in a state ; and, conse-
quently, that community cannot be pronounced happy,
in which, from the lowness and insufficiency of wages,
the laboring class procure so scanty a subsistence, that,
barely able to provide for their own necessities, they
have not the means of marrying and rearing a family,
and are reduced to beggary, whenever employment fails
them, or age and sickness oblige them to give up work.

Further, the wages under consideration ought not to be
estimated by their amount in money, but by the quantity
of provisions, clothing, and other commodities, which the
laborer can procure for the money which he receives.

Unhappily, in all the political states of the old \voiid,
a numerous class of citizens have nothing to live upon
but their wages, and these are inadequate to their sup-
port. This is the real cause of the misery of so many
day -laborers, who work in the fields, or in manufactories
in towns ; of pauperism, an evil which is spreading ev-
ery day, more and more, because governments attempt
to check it by feeble remedies only ; of depravity of
morals ; and of almost every crime. The policy of
tyranny and of commerce has overlooked and disguised
these truths. The horrible maxim, that the people must
be poor, in order that they may remain in subjection, is
still held by many persons of hard hearts and perverted
understanding, with whom it were useless to contend.
Others, again, think that the people should be poor,

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 437

from a regard for the supposed interests of commerce.
They believe that to increase the rate of wages would
raise the price of the productions of the soil, and espe-
cially of industry, which are sold to foreign nations, and
thus that exportation and the profits arising from it
would be diminished. But this motive is at once cruel
and ill-founded.

It is cruel ; for, whatever may be the advantages of
foreign commerce, if, in order to possess them, half the
nation must languish in misery, we cannot without crime
endeavour to obtain them, and it becomes the duty of a
government to relinquish them. To desire to keep
down the rate of wages, with the view of favoring the
exportation of merchandise, is to seek to render the citi-
zens of a state miserable, in order that foreigners may
purchase its productions at a cheaper rate ; it is, at
most, attempting to enrich a few merchants by impov-
erishing the body of the nation ; it is taking the part of
the stronger in that contest, already so unequal, between
the man who can pay wages, and him who is under the
necessity of receiving them ; it is, in one word, to forget,
that the object of every political society ought to be the
happiness of the largest number.

This motive is, moreover, ill-founded ; for, in order to
secure to a nation a profitable export for the products of
its agriculture and manufactures, it is not necessary that
the rate of wages should be reduced so extremely low,
as we find it in almost all the countries of Europe. It
is not the wages of the workman, but the price of the
merchandise, that should be lowered, in order that this
merchandise may be sold to foreign nations. But men
have always neglected to make this distinction. The
wages of the laborer are the price of his day's work.
The price of merchandise is the sum it costs to gath-
er the produce of the soil, or prepare any product

438 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

of industry. The price of this production may be very
moderate, while the laborer may receive good wages,
that is, the means of procuring a comfortable subsist-
ence. The labor necessary to gather or prepare the ar-
ticle to be sold may be cheap, and the wages of the
workman good. Although the workmen of Manchester
and Norwich, and those of Amiens and Abbeville, are
employed in the same kind of labor, the former receive
considerably higher wages than the latter ; and yet the
woollen fabrics of Manchester and Norwich, of the same
quality, are not so dear as those of Amiens and Ab-
beville.

It would occupy too much time fully to develope this
principle. I will only observe here, that it results in a
great measure from the fact, that the price of labor in
the arts, and even in agriculture, is wonderfully dimin-
ished by the perfection of the machinery employed in
them, by the intelligence and activity of the workmen, and
by the judicious division of labor. Now these methods
of reducing the price of manufactured articles have noth-
ing to do with the low wages of the workman. In a
large manufactory, where animals are employed instead
of men, and machinery instead of animal power, and
where that judicious division of labor is made, which
doubles, nay, increases tenfold, both power and time,
the article can be manufactured and sold at a much
lower rate, than in those establishments, which do not
enjoy the same advantages ; and yet the workmen in
the former may receive twice as much as in the latter.

It is, undoubtedly, an advantage for a manufactory to
obtain workmen at a moderate price ; and excessively
high wages are an obstacle to the foundation of large
manufacturing establishments. This high price of wa-
ges, as I shall presently explain, is one reason for the
opinion which is entertained, that it will be many years

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 439

before the manufactures of the United States of Ameri-
ca can rival those of Europe. But we must not con-
clude from this, that manufactures cannot prosper, un-
less the wages of the workmen are reduced as low as
we find them in Europe. And, moreover, the insuffi-
ciency of wages occasions the decline of a manufactory,
as its prosperity is promoted by a high rate of wages.

High wages attract the most skilful and most indus-
trious workmen. Thus the article is better made; it
sells better ; and, in this way, the employer makes a
greater profit, than he could do by diminishing the pay
of the workmen. A good workman spoils fewer tools,
wastes less material, and works faster, than one of inferior
skill ; and thus the profits of the manufacturer are in-
creased still more.

The perfection of machinery in all the arts is owing,
in a great degree, to the workmen. There is no impor-
tant manufacture, in which they have not invented
some useful process, which saves time and materials, or
improves the workmanship. If common articles of man-
ufacture, the only ones worthy to interest the statesman,
if woollen, cotton, and even silk stuffs, articles made of
iron, steel, copper, skins, leather, and various other
things, are generally of better quality, at the same price,
in England than in other countries, it is because work-
men are there better paid.

The low rate of wages, then, is not the real cause of
the advantages of commerce between one nation and
another ; but it is one of the greatest evils of political
communities.

Let us now inquire what is the situation of the Unit-
ed States in this respect. The condition of the day-
laborer, in these states, is infinitely better than in the
wealthiest countries in the old world, and particularly
England, where, however, wages are higher than in any

440 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

other part of Europe. In the state of New York, the
lowest class of workmen and those employed in the
most ordinary kinds of labor usually gain " three shillings
and sixpence currency, equal to two shillings sterling, a
day ; ship -carpenters, ten shillings and sixpence curren-
cy, with a pint of rum, equal in all to five shillings and
sixpence sterling; house -carpenters and brick-layers,
eight shillings currency, equal to four shillings and six-
pence sterling ; journeymen tailors, five shillings curren-
cy, equal to about two shillings and ten pence sterling."

These prices, much higher than those of London, are
quite as high in other parts of the United States as in
New York. I have taken them from Adam Smith's
Wealth of Nations.*

An intelligent observer, who travelled through a part
of the United States in 1780, gives us a still more
favorable idea of the price that is paid there for work.

" At Farmington," says he, " I saw them weaving a
kind of camblet, and also a blue and white striped woollen
cloth, for women's clothing. These fabrics are all sold
at three shillings and sixpence per ell, f in the currency
of the country, equal to about forty-five sous tournois.
The sons and the grandsons of the master of the

* Book I. chap. 3. This was written in the year 1773. The money
price of wages has since that time risen very much in the United States.
At present (1835) in Boston, the rate of wages in the same trades is
about as follows, viz. common labor per diem, sixty- eight and | cents,
equal to five shillings and sixpence of the New York currency in shil-
lings and pence ; ship-carpenters $2, equal to sixteen shillings New
York ; housewrights $1,75, equal to fourteen shillings New York ; brick-
layers $2,25, equal to twenty shillings New York ; tailors $1,50 equal to
twelve shillings New York. This is the rate of wages for journey-
men in each of the above trades. The rate in the principal towns in
the northern and middle States generally does not vary materially from
that in Boston. The laborer is supposed to support himself at the above
rate of wages ; and fortunately the pint of rum is not now so generally a
part of his requisite supplies, as it was at the time when Adam Smith
wrote his work. — W. PHILLIPS.

f About thirty-three inches.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 441

house were working at the business. One workman
can easily make five ells of this cloth a day ; and as the
original material costs but a shilling, he can earn ten or
twelve shillings by his day's labor."

But this fact is so well known, that it is superfluous
to attempt to prove it by further examples.

The causes of the high price of labor in our Ameri-
can States must then continue to operate more and
more powerfully ; since agriculture and population ad-
vance there with such rapidity, that labor of every de-
scription is increased in proportion.

Nor is this all. The high rate of wages paid them in
money proves, that they are even better than one would
suppose them at first view; and, in order to estimate
them correctly, an important circumstance should be
known. In every part of North America, the necessa-
ries of life are cheaper than in England. Scarcity is
unknown there. In the least productive seasons, the
harvest is always sufficient for the supply of the inhabit-
ants, and they are only obliged to diminish the exporta-
tion of their produce. Now, the price of labor in mon-
ey being higher there than in England, and provisions
cheaper, the actual wages, that is, the amount of ne-
cessary articles, which the day laborer can buy, is so
much the greater.

It remains for me to show how the high rate of wages
in America will increase their rate in Europe.

Two distinct causes will unite in producing this ef-
fect. The first is the greater quantity of labor, that
Europe will have to perform, in consequence of the ex-
istence of another great nation in the commercial world,
and of its continual increase ; and the second, the emi-
gration of European workmen, or the mere possibility of
their emigrating, in order to go to America, where labor
is better paid.

VOL. ii. 56

442 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

It is certain, that the amount of labor in the vari-
ous branches of agriculture, manufactures, commerce,
and navigation, must be augmented in Europe, by the
addition of several millions of men to the commercial
world. Now, the amount of annual labor being increas-
ed, labor will be somewhat better paid, and me rate of
daily wages received by the workman will be raised by
this concurrence of circumstances. For example, if
the additional supply of one hundred thousand pieces
of cloth, twenty thousand casks of wine, and ten thou-
sand casks of brandy, is to be furnished to the Amer-
icans, not only will the persons necessarily employed
in the production or manufacture of these commodities
receive higher wages, but the price of all other kinds of
labor will be augmented.

The rate of wages in Europe will be raised by yet
another circumstance, with which it is important to be
acquainted. I have already said, that the value of wa-
ges ought not to be estimated solely by the amount of
money, nor even by the quantity of subsistence, which
the workman receives per day, but also by the number
of days in which he is employed ; for it is by such a
calculation alone, that we can find out what he has for
each day. Is it not evident, that he who should be
paid at the rate of forty pence a day, and should fail of
obtaining work half the year, would really have but
twenty pence to subsist upon, and that he would be
less advantageously situated than the man, who, receiv-
ing but thirty pence, could yet be supplied with work
every day ? Thus the Americans, occasioning in Eu-
rope an increased demand and necessity for labor,
would also necessarily cause there an augmentation of
wages, even supposing the price of the day's \vork to
remain at the same rate.

Perhaps it will be objected to what I have said, that

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 443

this new nation will contain within itself as many labor-
ing people as it can employ ; and that thus, adding no-
thing to the quantity of work to be performed in Eu-
rope, it will be no advantage to the men who perform
this work. But I reply, that it is impossible but that the
United States of America, in their present condition,
and much more when their population and wealth shall
be doubled, nay, quadrupled, should employ the labor of
Europeans in one way or another. It is impossible, be-
cause in this respect the Americans are not differently
situated from other nations, who all have need of each
other. The fertility of the American soil, the abun-
dance and variety of its productions, the activity and
industry of its inhabitants, and the unrestricted com-
merce, which will sooner or later be established in Eu-
rope in consequence of the American Independence,
secure the relations of America with other countries ; be-
cause she will furnish to other nations such of her pro-
ductions, as they may require; and, as each country
possesses some productions peculiar to itself, the de-
mand and advantage will be reciprocal.

The second cause, which I have said must cooperate
in producing an augmentation of wages in Europe, is
emigration, or the mere possibility of emigrating to
America, where labor is better paid. It is easy to con-
ceive, that, when this difference is generally known, it
will draw to the United States many men, who, having
no means of subsistence but their labor, will flock to
the place where this labor is best recompensed. Since
the last peace, the Irish have been continually emigrat-
ing to America. The reason of this is, that in Ireland
wages are much less than in England, and that the low-
er classes are consequently great sufferers. Germa-
ny has also furnished new citizens to the United
States ; and all these laborers must, by leaving Europe,
have raised the price of work for those who remain.

444 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

This salutary effect will be produced even without
emigration, and will result from the mere possibility of
emigrating, at least in those states of Europe whose in-
habitants are not compelled to leave their own country
by excessive taxation, bad laws, and the intolerance of
government.

In order to raise the rate of wages, it is enough that
higher can be obtained in any place to which the work-
man, who depends upon them, can remove. It has
been wisely remarked in the discussions, which have
arisen upon the corn trade, that the simple liberty of
exporting grain would keep up and even raise its price,
without the actual exportation of a single bushel. The
case is the same with wages. As European workmen
can so easily remove to America to procure higher
wages, they will oblige those who purchase their labor
to pay them more for it.

Hence it follows, that these two causes of the rise of
wages, actual emigration and the mere possibility of
emigrating, will concur to produce the same effect.
Each acting at first in an inconsiderable degree, there
will be some emigration. Then wages will be raised,
and the laborer, finding his gains increase, will no longer
have a sufficiently powerful motive to emigrate.

But the rise of wages will not be equally felt by the
different nations of Europe. It will be more or less
considerable, in proportion to the greater or less facili-
ties for emigration, which each affords. England, whose
manners, language, and religion are the same with those
of America, must naturally enjoy this advantage in a
higher degree than any other European state. We
may assert, that she already owes much to America; for
her relations with that country, the market which she
has found there for her merchandise, and which has
raised the wages of the day-laborers employed in her

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 445

agriculture and manufactures, are among the principal
causes of her wealth, and of the political influence we
find her exerting.

But, to say nothing of other advantages, which may
ultimately accrue from the rise of wages, this augmen-
tation has already produced one most valuable result
in England. It has ameliorated the condition of that
class of men, who live by the labor of their hands
alone, that is, the most numerous portion of society.
This class, elsewhere reduced to the most scanty sub-
sistence, are much better off in England. They there
obtain by their labor the necessaries of life in greater
abundance than in many other parts of Europe ; and
there can be no doubt, that this springs from the influ-
ence of American commerce on the rate of wages.

I know it may be said, that, notwithstanding the
increase of labor and of subsistence in Europe, and
notwithstanding the emigration which may take place,
the same causes which we have mentioned, and which
have reduced wages so low, will continue to operate,
because they are inherent in the constitutions of Euro-
pean states, whose defects will not be remedied by the
liberty and prosperity of America. Perhaps it may be
said, also, that the number of proprietors and capital-
ists, a number very small compared with that of the
men, who, having no landed property nor capital, are com-
pelled to live upon wages, will remain the same, because
the causes which accumulate landed property and capital
in their hands will not change, and consequently that they
will reduce, or rather keep wages very low. Finally, it
may be said, that the tyranny of the feudal laws, the
mode of taxation, the excessive increase of the public
revenue, and the laws of commerce, will always pro-
duce the same effect of diminishing wages, and that,

VOL. II. LL

446 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

should Europe derive any real advantage, in this re-
spect, from American independence, it would not be
permanent.

To these suggestions, many things may be said in
reply. I will observe, in the first place, that, if the
governments of Europe endeavour to counteract the
salutary effects, which the independence of America
would naturally produce in respect to them, it is not
the less interesting to endeavour to ascertain what
these effects would be. Better days may come, when,
the true principles of the happiness of nations being
better understood, there will be some sovereign suffi-
ciently enlightened and just to put them in operation.
The causes, which tend continually to accumulate and
concentrate landed property and wealth in a few hands,
may be diminished. The remains of the feudal system
may be abolished, or, at least, rendered less oppressive.
The mode of taxation may be changed, and its excess
moderated. And, lastly, bad commercial regulations
may be amended. The tendency of all these improve-
ments will be, to enable the working classes to profit
by the favorable change, which the American Revolu-
tion must naturally produce.

But, admitting that all the causes, which have just
been mentioned, should concur to keep the wages,
which the day -laborer receives for his work in Europe,
at a low rate, they could, however, only weaken the
influence exerted by the prosperity of America, and
not wholly destroy it. If every thing else remained in
the same state, there would still be a greater consump-
tion, and consequently more labor to be performed.
Now, this consumption and labor continually increasing
in the same ratio with the increase of population and
wealth in the New World, an augmentation of wages
in Europe will be the necessary result; for the coun-

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 447

teracting causes will not operate more powerfully than
they now do.*

* The suggestion in this essay, that the capacity of a nation for cheap
production is not dependent solely upon the lowness of wages, is very
just, indeed quite ohvious, and yet it is not usually so satisfactorily pre-
sented in works on political economy, as it is above. Those works
are apt to lead the reader into a misapprehension on this subject, by
assigning to the money rate of wages too predominant an influence on
the money price of products. That it is not decisive in this respect is
demonstrated in the example put in the text, namely, that of England,
where wages are higher than in any other European country ; and yet
England maintains a successful competition in the foreign markets with
other nations, and not only with those where labor is cheaper, but also
with those where interest is usually lower, for instance, Holland. These
are disadvantages under which England, and still more the United States,
labor in competition with the Dutch in her foreign markets, and also the
home markets, provided all goods, both foreign and domestic, are admitted
into the home market upon the same footing without discrimination.

How are these disadvantages to be compensated ? It may be by some
or ail of the following advantages, viz. 1. By low rents and cheap mate-
rials. 2. By plenty and cheapness of fuel. 3. By facility of inland trans-
portation. 4. By a good geographical position for marine transportation.
5. By a good mercantile marine. 6. By commercial advantages secured
by treaties and conventions with foreign nations. 7. By superior intelli-
gence and skill of operatives. 8. By improvements in machinery and
more perfect implements. 9. By more intense industry, rendering a
day's labor more effective independently of any superiority of skill or
implements. 10. By superior sagacity, activity, and enterprise on the
part of the undertakers and conductors of the national industry. 11. By
the greater enterprise, skill, and activity of the merchants. In comparing
the condition of different nations as competitors in commerce, these
causes ought all to be kept in view, no less than the money rate of
wages and the rate of interest ; and so presented, that a just weight may
be assigned to each.

In regard to the influence of the growth of the United States upon the
rate of wages in Europe, Franklin's argument supposes, that the in-
crease of employment for European laborers will be greater in propor-
tion to the increase of the laborers themselves, than if the country were
stationary. The proposition is probably true, but not so obviously so, that
it can be taken for granted. The essay would have been clearer and
more satisfactory, had this question been treated. — W. PHILLIPS.

448 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

ON LUXURY, IDLENESS, AND INDUSTRY *

IT is wonderful how preposterously the affairs of
this world are managed. Naturally one would im-
agine, that the interest of a few individuals should
give way to general interest ; but individuals manage
their affairs with so much more application, industry,
and address, than the public do theirs, that general
interest most commonly gives way to particular. We
assemble parliaments and councils, to have the benefit
of their collected wisdom ; but we necessarily have,
at the same time, the inconvenience of their collected
passions, prejudices, and private interests. By the
help of these, artful men overpower their wisdom, and
dupe its possessors ; and if we may judge by the acts,
arrets, and edicts, all the world over, for regulating
commerce, an assembly of great men is the greatest
fool upon earth.

I have not yet, indeed, thought of a remedy for
luxury. I am not sure, that in a great state it is
capable of a remedy, nor that the evil is in itself
always so great as it is represented. Suppose we
include in the definition of luxury all unnecessary ex-
pense, and then let us consider whether laws to pre-
vent such expense are possible to be executed in a
great country, and whether, if they could be executed,
our people generally would be happier, or even richer.
Is not the hope of being one day able to purchase
and enjoy luxuries a great spur to labor and indus-
try? May not luxury, therefore, produce more than
it consumes, if without such a spur people would be,

* From a letter to Mr. Benjamin Vaughan, dated at Passy, July 26th,
1784.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

as they are naturally enough inclined to be, lazy and
indolent ? To this purpose I remember a circumstance.
The skipper of a shallop, employed between Cape
May and Philadelphia, had done us some small service,
for which he refused to be paid. My wife, under-
standing that he had a daughter, sent her a present
of a new-fashioned cap. Three years after, this skip-
per being at my house with an old farmer of Cape
May, his passenger, he mentioned the cap, and how
much his daughter had been pleased with it. " But,"
said he, "it proved a dear cap to our congregation."
"How so?" "When my daughter appeared with it
at meeting, it was .so much admired, that all the girls
resolved to get such caps from Philadelphia; and my
wife and I computed, that the whole could not have
cost less than a hundred pounds." "True," said the
farmer, " but you do not tell all the story. I think the
cap was nevertheless an advantage to us, for it was the
first thing that put our girls upon knitting worsted mit-
tens for sale at Philadelphia, that they might have where-
withal to buy caps and ribbons there ; and you know
that that industry has continued, and is likely to con-
tinue and increase to a much greater value, and an-
swer better purposes." Upon the whole, I was more
reconciled to this little piece of luxury, since not only
the girls were made happier by having fine caps, but
the Philadelphians by the supply of warm mittens.

In our commercial towns upon the seacoast, fortunes
will occasionally be made. Some of those who grow
rich will be prudent, live within bounds, and preserve
what they have gained for their posterity ; others, fond
of showing their wealth, will be extravagant and ruin
themselves. Laws cannot prevent this ; and perhaps
it is not always an evil to the public. A shilling spent
idly by a fool, may be picked up by a wiser person,

VOL. II. 57 LL*

450 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

who knows better what to do with it. It is therefore
not lost. A vain, silly fellow builds a fine house, fur-
nishes it richly, lives in it expensively, and in few years
ruins himself; but the masons, carpenters, smiths, and
other honest tradesmen have been by his employ
assisted in maintaining and raising their families ; the
farmer has been paid for his labor, and encouraged,
and the estate is now in better hands. In some cases,
indeed, certain modes of luxury may be a public evil,
in the same manner as it is a private one. If there
be a nation, for instance, that exports its beef and
linen, to pay for the importation of claret and porter,
while a great part of its people live upon potatoes,
and wear no shirts, wherein does it differ from the
sot, who lets his family starve, and sells his clothes to
buy drink ? Our American commerce is, I confess, a
little in this way. We sell our victuals to the Islands
for rum and sugar; the substantial necessaries of life
for superfluities. But we have plenty, and live well
nevertheless, though, by being soberer, we might be
richer.

The vast quantity of forest land we have yet to
clear, and put in order for cultivation, will for a long
time keep the body of our nation laborious and frugal.
Forming an opinion of our people and their manners
by what is seen among the inhabitants of the seaports,
is judging from an improper sample. The people of the
trading towns may be rich and luxurious, while the
country possesses all the virtues, that tend to promote
happiness and public prosperity. Those towns are
not much regarded by the country ; they are hardly
considered as an essential part of the States ; and the
experience of the last war has shown, that their being
in the possession of the enemy did not necessarily
draw on the subjection of the country, which bravely

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 451

continued to maintain its freedom and independence
notwithstanding.

It has been computed by some political arithmetician,
that, if every man and woman would work for four
hours each day on something useful, that labor would
produce sufficient to procure all the necessaries and
comforts of life, want and misery would be banished
out of the world, and the rest of the twenty-four hours
might be leisure and pleasure.

What occasions then so much want and misery ? It
is the employment of men and women in works, that
produce neither the necessaries nor conveniences of
life, who, with those who do nothing, consume neces-
saries raised by the laborious. To explain this.

The first elements of wealth are obtained by labor,
from the earth and waters. I have land, and raise
corn. With this, if I feed a family that does nothing,
my corn will be consumed, and at the end of the year
I shall be no richer than I was at the beginning. But
if, while I feed them, I employ them, some in spinning,
others in making bricks, &c. for building, the value of
my corn will be arrested and remain with me, and at
the end of the year we may all be better clothed
and better lodged. And if, instead of employing a
man I feed in making bricks, I employ him in fiddling
for me, the corn he eats is gone, and no part of his
manufacture remains to augment the wealth and con-
venience of the family ; I shall therefore be the poorer
for this fiddling man, unless the rest of my family work
more, or eat less, to make up the deficiency he oca

sions. ,

Look round the world and see the millions employ-
ed in doing nothing, or in something that amounts to
nothing when the necessaries and conveniences ol

question. What is the bulk of commerce, for

are in

452 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

which we fight and destroy each other, but the toil of
millions for superfluities, to the great hazard and loss
of many lives by the constant dangers of the sea ?
How much labor is spent in building and fitting great
ships, to go to China and Arabia for tea and coffee,
to the West Indies for sugar, to America for tobacco 1
These things cannot be called the necessaries of life,
for our ancestors lived very comfortably without them.

A question may be asked; Could all these people,
now employed in raising, making, or carrying super-
fluities, be subsisted by raising necessaries ? I think
they might. The world is large, and a great part of
it still uncultivated. Many hundred millions of acres
in Asia, Africa, and America are still in a forest, and
a great deal even in Europe. On a hundred acres of
this forest a man might become a substantial farmer,
and a hundred thousand men, employed in clearing
each his hundred acres, would hardly brighten a spot
big enough to be visible from the moon, unless with
Herschel's telescope; so vast are the regions still in
wood.

It is, however, some comfort to reflect, that, upon the
whole, the quantity of industry and prudence among
mankind exceeds the quantity of idleness and folly.
Hence the increase of good buildings, farms cultivated,
and populous cities filled with wealth, all over Europe,
which a few ages since were only to be found on the
coast of the Mediterranean; and this, notwithstanding
the mad wars continually raging, by which are often
destroyed in one year the works of many years' peace.
So that we may hope the luxury of a few merchants
on the coast will not be the ruin of America.

One reflection more, and I will end this long, ram-
bling letter. Almost all the parts of our bodies require
some expense. The feet demand shoes ; the legs,

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 453

stockings ; the rest of the body, clothing ; and the
belly, a good deal of victuals. Our eyes, though ex-
ceedingly useful, ask, when reasonable, only the cheap
assistance of spectacles, which could not much impair
our finances. But the eyes of other people are the
eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I
should want neither fine clothes, fine houses, nor fine
furniture.

REMARKS
CONCERNING THE SAVAGES OF NORTH AMERICA.*

SAVAGES we call them, because their manners differ
from ours, which we think the perfection of civility ; they
think the same of theirs.

Perhaps, if we could examine the manners of different
nations with impartiality, we should find no people so
rude, as to be without any rules of politeness ; nor any
so polite, as not to have some remains of rudeness.

The Indian men, when young, are hunters and war-
riors ; when old, counsellors ; for all their government is
by the counsel or advice of the sages; there is no force,
there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or
inflict punishment. Hence they generally study oratory, y
the best speaker having the most influence. The Indian
women till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring
up the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity
the memory of public transactions. These employments
of men and women are accounted natural and honorable.
Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of

* This paper and the two next in order were published in separate pam-
phlets in England, in the year 1784; and afterwards, in 1787, they formed a
part of our author's papers printed for Dilly. — Editor of Johnson Sf Long-
man's Edition.

454 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

leisure for improvement by conversation. Our laborious
manner of life, compared with theirs, they esteem slavish
and base; and the learning, on which we value ourselves,
they regard as frivolous and useless. An instance of this
occurred at the treaty of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, anno
1 744, between the government of Virginia and the Six
Nations. After the principal business was settled, the
commissioners from Virginia acquainted the Indians by
a speech, that there was at Williamsburg a college, with
a fund for educating Indian youth ; and that, if the chiefs
of the Six Nations would send down half a dozen of their
sons to that college, the government would take care that
they should be well provided for, and instructed in all the
learning of the white people. It is one of the Indian rules
of politeness not to answer a public proposition the same
day that it is made ; they think it would be treating it as
a light matter, and that they show it respect by taking
time to consider it, as of a matter important. They there-
fore deferred their answer till the day following ; when
their speaker began, by expressing their deep sense of
the kindness of the Virginia government, in making them
that offer; "for we know," says he, "that you highly es-
teem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and
that the maintenance of our young men, while with you,
would be very expensive to you. We are convinced,
therefore, that you mean to do us good by your proposal ;
and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise,
must know that different nations have different con-
ceptions of things; and you will therefore not take it
amiss, if our ideas of this kind of education happen not
to be the same with yours. We have had some expe-
rience of it ; several of our young people were formerly
brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces;
they were instructed in all your sciences; but, when
they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 455

of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear
either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a
cabin, take a deer, nor kill an enemy, spoke our lan-
guage imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for hunters,
warriors, nor counsellors; they were totally good for
nothing. We are however not the less obliged by your
kind offer, though we decline accepting it; and, to
show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Vir-
ginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take
great care of their education, instruct them in all we
know, and make men of them."

Having frequent occasions to hold public councils, they
have acquired great order and decency in conducting
them. The old men sit in the foremost ranks, the war-
riors in the next, and the women and children in the
hindmost. The business of the women is to take exact
notice of what passes, imprint it in their memories (for
they have no writing), and communicate it to their chil-
dren. They are the records of the council, and they
preserve the tradition of the stipulations in treaties a
hundred years back ; which, when we compare with our
writings, we always find exact. He that would speak,
rises. The rest observe a profound silence. When he
has finished and sits down, they leave him five or six
minutes to recollect, that, if he has omitted any thing
he intended to say, or has any thing to add, he may
rise again and deliver it. To interrupt another, even
in common conversation, is reckoned highly indecent.
How different this is from the conduct of a polite Bri-
tish House of Commons, where scarce a day passes
without some confusion, that makes the speaker hoarse
in calling to order; and how different from the mode
of conversation in many polite companies of Europe,
where, if you do not deliver your sentence with great
rapidity, you are cut off in the middle of it by the

456 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

impatient loquacity of those you converse with and
never suffered to finish it !

The politeness of these savages in conversation is
indeed carried to excess, since it does not permit them
to contradict or deny the truth of what is asserted in
their presence. By this means they indeed avoid dis-
putes; but then it becomes difficult to know their minds,
or what impression you make upon them. The mis-
sionaries who have attempted to convert them to Chris-
tianity, all complain of this as one of the great difficul-
ties of their mission. The Indians hear with patience
the truths of the Gospel explained to them, and give
their usual tokens of assent and approbation ; you would
think they were convinced. No such matter. It is
mere civility.

A Swedish minister, having assembled the chiefs of
the Susquehanna Indians, made a sermon to them,
acquainting them with the principal historical facts on
which our religion is founded ; such as the fall of our
first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ
to repair the mischief, his miracles and suffering, &c.
When he had finished, an Indian orator stood up to
thank him. " What you have told us," says he, " is all
very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better
to make them all into cider. We are much obliged by
your kindness in coming so far, to tell us those things
which you have heard from your mothers. In return,
I will tell you some of those we have heard from ours.
" In the beginning, our fathers had only the flesh of
animals to subsist on ; and, if their hunting was unsuc-
cessful, they were starving. Two of our young hunters,
having killed a deer, made a fire in the woods to broil
some parts of it. When they were about to satisfy
their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman
descend from the clouds, and seat herself on that hill,

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 457

which you see yonder among the Blue Mountains.
They said to each other, it is a spirit that perhaps has
smelt our broiling venison, and wishes to eat of it ; let
us offer some to her. They presented her with the
tongue ; she was pleased with the taste of it, and said,
'Your kindness shall be rewarded; come to this place
after thirteen moons, and you shall find something that
will be of great benefit in nourishing you and your
children to the latest generations.' They did so, and,
to their surprise, found plants they had never seen be-
fore ; but which, from that ancient time, have been con-
stantly cultivated among us, to our great advantage.
Where her right hand had touched the ground, they
found maize ; where her left hand had touched it, they
found kidney-beans ; and where her backside had sat
on it, they found tobacco." The good missionary,
disgusted with this idle tale, said, " What I delivered to
you were sacred truths ; but what you tell me is mere
fable, fiction, and falsehood." The Indian, offended,
replied, "My brother, it seems your friends have not
done you justice in your education; they have not well
instructed you in the rules of common civility. You
saw that we, who understand and practise those rules,
believed all your stories ; why do you refuse to believe

ours!"

When any of them come into our towns, our people
are apt to crowd round them, gaze upon them, and
incommode them, where they desire to be private; this
they esteem great rudeness, and the effect of the want
of instruction in the rules of civility and 'good manners.
« We have," say they, "as much curiosity as you, and
when you come into our towns, we wish for opportu-
nities of looking at you; but for this purpose we hid
ourselves behind bushes, where you are to pass, an
never intrude ourselves into your company."

58 M M

VOL. II.

458 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Their manner of entering one another's village has
likewise its rules. It is reckoned uncivil in travelling
strangers to enter a village abruptly, without giving no-
tice of their approach. Therefore, as soon as they arrive
within hearing, they stop and hollow, remaining there till
invited to enter. Two old men usually come out to
them, and lead them in. There is in every village a
vacant dwelling, called the strangers' house. Here
they are placed, while the old men go round from hut
to hut, acquainting the inhabitants, that strangers are
arrived, who are probably hungry and weary ; and every
one sends them what he can spare of victuals, and
skins to repose on. When the strangers are refreshed,
pipes and tobacco are brought; and then, but not be-
fore, conversation begins, with inquiries who they are,
whither bound, what news, &c. ; and it usually ends
with offers of service, if the strangers have occasion
for guides, or any necessaries for continuing their jour-
ney; and nothing is exacted for the entertainment.

The same hospitality, esteemed among them as a
principal virtue, is practised by private persons; of
which Conrad Weiser, our interpreter, gave me the
following instance. He had been naturalized among
the Six Nations, and spoke well the Mohock language.
In going through the Indian country, to carry a mes-
sage from our governor to the council at Onondaga,
he called at the habitation of Canassetego, an old ac-
quaintance, who embraced him, spread furs for him to
sit on, and placed before him some boiled beans and
venison, and mixed some rum and water for his drink.
When he was well refreshed, and had lit his pipe,
Canassetego began to converse with him; asked how
he had fared the many years since they had seen each
other; whence he then came; what occasioned the
journey, &c. Conrad answered all his questions ; arid

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 459

when the discourse began to flag, the Indian, to con-
tinue it, said, " Conrad, you have lived long among the
white people, and know something of their customs ; I
have been sometimes at Albany, and have observed,
that once in seven days they shut up their shops, and
assemble all in the great house ; tell me what it is for 1
What do they do there 1 " " They meet there," says
Conrad, " to hear and learn good things" " I do not
doubt," says the Indian, " that they tell you so ; they
have told me the same ; but I doubt the truth of what
they say, and I will tell you my reasons. I went lately
to Albany to sell my skins and buy blankets, knives,
powder, rum, &,c. You know I used generally to deal
with Hans Hanson ; but I was a little inclined this time
to try some other merchants. However, I called first
upon Hans, and asked him what he would give for
beaver. He said he could not give any more than four
shillings a pound; < but,' says he, 'I cannot talk on busi-
ness now ; this is the day when we meet together to
learn good things, and I am going to meeting.' So I
thought to myself, < Since I cannot do any business to-
day,^ may as well go to the meeting too,' and I went
with him. There stood up a man in black, and began
to talk to the people very angrily. I did not understand
what he said ; but, perceiving that he looked much at
me and at Hanson, I imagined he was angry at seeing
me there; so I went out, sat down near the house,
struck fire, and lit my pipe, waiting till the meeting
should break up. I thought too, that the man had
mentioned something of beaver, and I suspected
might be the subject of their meeting. So, when they
came out, I accosted my merchant. ' Well, Hans,' says
I <I hope you have agreed to give more than lour
lings a pound.' 'No,' says he, <I cannot give so mu<
I cannot give more than three shillings and sixpence.

460 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

I then spoke to several other dealers, but they all sung
the same song, — three and sixpence, — three and six-
pence. This made it clear to me, that my suspicion
was right; and, that whatever they pretended of meet-
ing to learn good things, the real purpose was to con-
sult how to cheat Indians in the price of beaver.
Consider but a little, Conrad, and you must be of my
opinion. If they met so often to learn good things,
they would certainly have learned some before this time.
But they are still ignorant. You know our practice.
If a white man, in travelling through our country, en-
ters one of our cabins, we all treat him as I do you ;
we dry him if he is wet, we warm him if he is cold,
and give him meat and drink, that he may allay his
thirst and hunger ; and we spread soft furs for him to
rest and sleep on ; we demand nothing in return. But,
if I go into a white man's house at Albany, and ask
for victuals and drink, they say, 'Where is your money?'
and if I have none, they say, ' Get out, you Indian dog.'
You see they have not yet learned those little good
things, that we need no meetings to be instructed in,
because our mothers taught them to us when we were
children; and therefore it is impossible their meetings
should be, as they say, for any such purpose, or have
any such effect ; they are only to contrive the cheating
of Indians in the price of beaver"

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 461

THE INTERNAL STATE OF AMERICA;

BEING A TRUE DESCRIPTION OF THE INTEREST AND
POLICY OF THAT VAST CONTINENT.

THERE is a tradition, that, in the planting of New
England, the first settlers met with many difficulties and
hardships; as is generally the case when a civilized
people attempt establishing themselves in a wilderness
country. Being piously disposed, they sought relief
from Heaven, by laying their wants and distresses before
the Lord, in frequent set days of fasting and prayer.
Constant meditation and discourse on these subjects
kept their minds gloomy and discontented; and, like
the children of Israel, there were many disposed to re-
turn to that Egypt, which persecution had induced them
to abandon. At length, when it was proposed in the
assembly to proclaim another fast, a farmer of plain sense
rose, and remarked, that the inconveniences they suf-
fered, and concerning which they had so often weaned
Heaven with their complaints, were not so great as they
might have expected, and were diminishing every day,
as the colony strengthened ; that the earth began to re-
ward their labor, and to furnish liberally for their subsis-
tence ; that the seas and rivers were found full of fish,
the air sweet, the climate healthy ; and, above all, that
they were there in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil
and religious. He therefore thought, that reflecting and
conversing on these subjects would be more comforta-
ble, as tending more to make them contented with their
situation; and that it would be more becoming the

MM*

462 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

gratitude they owed to the Divine Being, if, instead of
a fast, they should proclaim a thanksgiving. His advice
was taken; and from that day to this they have, in
every year, observed circumstances of public felicity
sufficient to furnish employment for a thanksgiving day ;
which is therefore constantly ordered and religiously
observed.

I see in the public newspapers of different States
frequent complaints of hard times, deadness of trade,
scarcity of money, &c. It is not my intention to assert
or maintain, that these complaints are entirely without
foundation. There can be no country or nation exist-
ing, in which there will not be some people so circum-
stanced, as to find it hard to gain a livelihood ; people
who are not in the way of any profitable trade, and with
whom money is scarce, because they have nothing to
give in exchange for it ; and it is always in the power
of a small number to make a great clamor. But let us
take a cool view of the general state of our affairs, and
perhaps the prospect will appear less gloomy than has
been imagined.

The great business of the continent is agriculture.
For one artisan, or merchant, I suppose, we have at
least one hundred farmers, by far the greatest part cul-
tivators of their own fertile lands, from whence many of
them draw, not only the food necessary for their subsis-
tence, but the materials of their clothing, so as to need
very few foreign supplies ; while they have a surplus of
productions to dispose of, whereby wealth is gradually
accumulated. Such has been the goodness of Divine
Providence to these regions, and so favorable the cli-
mate, that, since the three or four years of hardship 'in
the first settlement of our fathers here, a famine or scar-
city has never been heard of amongst us; on the con-
trary, though some years may have been more, and

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 463

others less plentiful, there has always been provision
enough for ourselves, and a quantity to spare for expor-
tation. And although the crops of last year were
generally good, never was the farmer better paid for the
part he can spare commerce, as the published price-
currents abundantly testify. The lands he possesses
are also continually rising in value with the increase of
population; and, on the whole, he is enabled to give
such good wages to those who work for him, that all
who are acquainted with the old world must agree, that
in no part of it are the laboring poor so generally well
fed, well clothed, well lodged, and well paid, as in the
United States of America.

If we enter the cities, we find, that, since the Revo-
lution, the owners of houses and lots of ground have
had their interest vastly augmented in value; rents have
risen to an astonishing height, and thence encourage-
ment to increase building, which gives employment to
an abundance of workmen, as does also the increased
luxury and splendor of living of the inhabitants, thus
made richer. These workmen all demand and obtain
much higher wages than any other part of the world
would afford them, and are paid in ready money,
class of people therefore do not, or ought not, to com-
plain of hard times ; and they make a very considerable
part of the city inhabitants.

At the distance I live from our American fisher
I cannot speak of them with any degree of certainty;
but I have not heard, that the labor of the valuable race
of men employed in them is worse paid, or that they
meet with less success, than before the Revolution
The whalemen indeed have been deprived of
market for their oil; but another, I hear, is opening i
them, which it is hoped may be equally advantageous
and the demand is constantly increasing for thei

464 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

spermaceti candles, which therefore bear a much higher
price than formerly.

There remain the merchants and shopkeepers. Of
these, though they make but a small part of the whole
nation, the number is considerable, too great indeed for
the business they are employed in ; for the consumption
of goods in every country, has its limits ; the faculties
of the people, that is, their ability to buy and pay, being
equal only to a certain quantity of merchandise. If
merchants calculate amiss on this proportion, and import
too much, they will of course find the sale dull for the
overplus, and some of them will say, that trade lan-
guishes. They should, and doubtless will, grow wiser
by experience, and import less. If too many artificers
in town, and farmers from the country, flattering them-
selves with the idea of leading easier lives, turn shop-
keepers, the whole natural quantity of that business
divided among them all may afford too small a share
for each, and occasion complaints, that trade is dead ;
these may also suppose, that it is owing to scarcity of
money, while, in fact, it is not so much from the few-
ness of buyers, as from the excessive number of sellers,
that the mischief arises; and, if every shop-keeping
farmer and mechanic would return to the use of his
plough and working-tools, there would remain of wid-
ows, and other women, shop-keepers sufficient for the
business, which might then afford them a comfortable
maintenance.

Whoever has travelled through the various parts of
Europe, and observed how small is the proportion of
people in affluence or easy circumstances there, com-
pared with those in poverty and misery ; the few rich
and haughty landlords, the multitude of poor, abject,
rack-rented, tythe-paying tenants, and half-paid and
half-starved ragged laborers ; and views here the happy

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 455

mediocrity, that so generally prevails throughout these
States, where the cultivator works for himself, and sup-
ports his family in decent plenty, will, methinks, see
abundant reason to bless Divine Providence for the evi-
dent and great difference in our favor, and be con-
vinced, that no nation known to us enjoys a greater
share of human felicity.

It is true, that in some of the States there are parties
and discords ; but let us look back, and ask if we were
ever without them ? Such will exist wherever there is
liberty ; and perhaps they help to preserve it. By the
collision of different sentiments, sparks of truth are
struck out, and political light is obtained. The different
factions, which at present divide us, aim all at the pub-
lic good; the differences are only about the various
modes of promoting it. Things, actions, measures, and
objects of all kinds, present themselves to the minds of
men in such a variety of lights, that it is not possible
we should all think alike at the same time on every sub-
ject, when hardly the same man retains at all times the
same ideas of it. Parties are therefore the common lot
of humanity ; and ours are by no means more mischiev-
ous or less beneficial than those of other countries, na -
tions, and ages, enjoying in the same degree the great
blessing of political liberty.

Some indeed among us are not so much grieved for
the present state of our affairs, as apprehensive for the
future. The growth of luxury alarms them, and they
think we are from that alone in the high road to ruin.
They observe, that no revenue is sufficient without
economy, and that the most plentiful income of a whole
people from the natural productions of their country
may be dissipated in vain and needless expenses, and
poverty be introduced in the place of affluence. This
may be possible. It however rarely happens ; for
VOL. n. 59

466 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

there seems to be in every nation a greater proportion
of industry and frugality, which tend to enrich, than of
idleness and prodigality, which occasion poverty ; so that
upon the whole there is a continual accumulation. Re-
flect what Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain were in
the time of the Romans, inhabited by people little richer
than our savages, and consider the wealth they at pres-
ent possess, in numerous well-built cities, improved
farms, rich movables, magazines stocked with valuable
manufactures, to say nothing of plate, jewels, and coined
money ; and all this, notwithstanding their bad, wasteful,
plundering governments, and their mad, destructive
wars ; and yet luxury and extravagant living have never
suffered much restraint in those countries. Then con-
sider the great proportion of industrious frugal farmers
inhabiting the interior parts of these American States,
and of whom' the body of our nation consists ; and judge
whether it is possible, that the luxury of our seaports
can be sufficient to ruin such a country. If the impor-
tation of foreign luxuries could ruin a people, we should
probably have been ruined long ago ; for the British na-
tion claimed a right, and practised it, of importing among
us, not only the superfluities of their own production, but
those of every nation under heaven; we bought and
consumed them, and yet we flourished and grew rich.
At present, our independent governments may do what
we could not then do, discourage by heavy duties, or
prevent by heavy prohibitions, such importations, and
thereby grow richer; if, indeed, which may admit of
dispute, the desire of adorning ourselves with fine
clothes, possessing fine furniture, with elegant houses,
&,c., is not, by strongly inciting to labor and industry,
the occasion of producing a greater value, than is con-
sumed in the gratification of that desire.

The agriculture and fisheries of the United States are
the great sources of our increasing wealth. He that

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 467

puts a seed into the earth is recompensed, perhaps, by
receiving forty out of it ; and he who draws a fish out
of our water, draws up a piece of silver.

Let us (and there is no doubt but we shall) be atten-
tive to these, and then the power of rivals, with all their
restraining and prohibiting acts, cannot much hurt us.
We are sons of the earth and seas, and, like Antaeus hi
the fable, if, in wrestling with a Hercules, we now and
then receive a fall, the touch of our parents will commu-
nicate to us fresh strength and vigor to renew the con-
test.

TO THOSE WHO WOULD REMOVE TO AMERICA.

MANY persons in Europe, having directly or by let-
ters, expressed to the writer of this, who is well ac-
quainted with North America, their desire of transport-
ing and establishing themselves in that country ; but who
appear to have formed, through ignorance, mistaken
ideas and expectations of what is to be obtained there ;
he thinks it may be useful, and prevent inconvenient,
expensive, and fruitless removals and voyages of im-
proper persons, if he gives some clearer and truer no-
tions of that part of the world, than appear to have
hitherto prevailed.

He finds it is imagined by numbers, that the inhab:
tants of North America are rich, capable of rewarding,
and disposed to reward, all sorts of ingenuity; that they
are at the same time ignorant of all the sciences, and,
consequently, that strangers, possessing talents in t
belles-lettres, fine arts, &c., must be highly esteemed,

468 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

and so well paid, as to become easily rich themselves ;
that there are also abundance of profitable offices to be
disposed of, which the natives are not qualified to fill ;
and that, having few persons of family among them,
strangers of birth must be greatly respected, and of
course easily obtain the best of those offices, which will
make all their fortunes; that the governments too, to
encourage emigrations from Europe, not only pay the
expense of personal transportation, but give lands gratis
to strangers, with negroes to work for them, utensils of
husbandry, and stocks of cattle. These are all wild
imaginations ; and those who go to America with expec-
tations founded upon them will surely find themselves
disappointed.

The truth is, that though there are in that country
few people so miserable as the poor of Europe, there
are also very few that in Europe would be called rich ;
it is rather a general happy mediocrity that prevails.
There are few great proprietors of the soil, and few ten-
ants ; most people cultivate their own lands, or follow
some handicraft or merchandise ; very few rich enough
to live idly upon their rents or incomes, or to pay the
highest prices given in Europe for painting, statues, ar-
chitecture, and the other works of art, that are more
curious than useful. Hence the natural genuises, that
have arisen in America with such talents, have uni-
formly quitted that country for Europe, where they can
be more suitably rewarded. It is true, that letters and
mathematical knowledge are in esteem there, but they
are at the same time more common than is apprehend-
ed; there being already existing nine colleges or uni-
versities, viz. four in New England, and one in each
of the provinces of New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland, and Virginia, all furnished with learn-
ed professors ; besides a number of smaller academies ;

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 469

these educate many of their youth hi the languages,
and those sciences that qualify men for the professions
of divinity, law, or physic. Strangers indeed are by no
means excluded from exercising those professions ; and
the quick increase of inhabitants everywhere gives
them a chance of employ, which they have in common
with the natives. Of civil offices, or employments,
there are few ; no superfluous ones, as in Europe ; and
it is a rule established in some of the States, that no of-
fice should be so profitable as to make it desirable.
The thirty-sixth article of the Constitution of Penn-
sylvania, runs expressly in these words; "As every
freeman, to preserve his independence, (if he has not a
sufficient estate) ought to have some profession, calling,
trade, or farm, whereby he may honestly subsist, there
can be no necessity for, nor use in, establishing offices
of profit; the usual effects of which are dependence
and servility, unbecoming freemen, in the possessors
and expectants; faction, contention, corruption, and
disorder among the people. Wherefore, whenever an
office, through increase of fees or otherwise, becomes
so profitable, as to occasion many to apply for it, the
profits ought to be lessened by the legislature."

These ideas prevailing more or less in all the United
States, it cannot be worth any man's while, who has a
means of living at home, to expatriate himself, in hopes
of obtaining a profitable civil office in America ; and, as
to military offices, they are at an end with the war, the
armies being disbanded. Much less is it advisable for
a person to go thither, who has no other quality to re-
commend him but his birth. In Europe it has indeed
its value ; but it is a commodity that cannot be carried
to a worse market than that of America, where peo-
ple do not inquire concerning a stranger, What is he?
but, What cantedo? If he has any useful art, he is

VOL. II. XN f

470 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

welcome ; and if he exercises it, and behaves well, he
will be respected by all that know him; but a mere
man of quality, who, on that account, wants to live
upon the public, by some office or salary, will be de-
spised and disregarded. The husbandman is in honor
there, and even the mechanic, because their employ-
ments are useful. The people have a saying, that God
Almighty is himself a mechanic, the greatest in the
universe; and he is respected and admired more for
the variety, ingenuity, and utility of his handiworks,
than for the antiquity of his family. They are pleased
with the observation of a negro, and frequently mention
it, that Boccarora (meaning the white man) make de
black man workee, make de horse workee, make de ox
workee, make ebery ting ivorkee ; only de hog. He, de
hog, no workee ; he eat, he drink, he tvalk about, he go
to sleep when he please, he live like a gempleman. Ac-
cording to these opinions of the Americans, one of them
would think himself more obliged to a genealogist, who
could prove for him that his ancestors and relations for
ten generations had been ploughmen, smiths, carpen-
ters, turners, weavers, tanners, or even shoemakers,
and consequently that they were useful members of
society ; than if he could only prove that they were
gentlemen, doing nothing of value, but living idly on
the labor of others, mere fruges consumer e nati* and
otherwise good for nothing, till by their death their
estates, like the carcass of the negro's gentleman-hog,
come to be cut up.

With regard to encouragements for strangers from
government, they are really only what are derived from
good laws and liberty. Strangers are welcome, be-
cause there is room enough for them all, and therefore

*" born

Merely to eat up the corn." — WATTS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 471

the old inhabitants are not jealous of them ; the laws
protect them sufficiently, so that they have no need of
the patronage of great men ; and every one will enjoy
securely the profits of his industry. But, if he does
not bring a fortune with him, he must work and be in-
dustrious to live. One or two years' residence gives
him all the rights of a citizen ; but the government does
not, at present, whatever it may have done in former
times, hire people to become settlers, by paying their
passages, giving land, negroes, utensils, stock, or any
other kind of emolument whatsoever. In short, Amer-
ica is the land of labor, and by no means what the
English call Lubberland, and the French Pays de Co-
cagne, where the streets are said to be paved with
half-peck loaves, the houses tiled with pancakes, and
where the fowls fly about ready roasted, crying, Come

eat me !

Who then are the kind of persons to whom an emi-
gration to America may be advantageous ? And what
are the advantages they may reasonably expect?

Land being cheap in that country, from the vast
forests still void of inhabitants, and not likely to 1
occupied in an age to come, insomuch that the pro-
priety of an hundred acres of fertile soil full of wood
may be obtained near the frontiers, in many places,
for eight or ten guineas, hearty young laboring men,
who understand the husbandry of corn and cattle,
which is nearly the same in that country as in
may easily establish themselves there. A little money
saved of the good wages they receive there wMe they
work for others, enables them to buy the land and 1
their plantation, in which they are *********
w3l of their neighbours, and some credit Multi
oTpoor people from England, Ireland, Scotland, and
Germany! have by this means in a few years become

472 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

wealthy farmers, who, in their own countries, where all
the lands are fully occupied, and the wages of labor
low, could never have emerged from the poor condition
wherein they were born.

From the salubrity of the air, the healthiness of the
climate, the plenty of good provisions, and the en-
couragement to early marriages by the certainty of
subsistence in cultivating the earth, the increase of in-
habitants by natural generation is very rapid in Amer-
ica, and becomes still more so by the accession of stran-
gers; hence there is a continual demand for more arti-
sans of all the necessary and useful kinds, to supply
those cultivators of the earth with houses, and with
furniture and utensils of the grosser sorts, which can-
not so well be brought from Europe. Tolerably good
workmen in any of those mechanic arts are sure to find
employ, and to be well paid for their work, there being
no restraints preventing strangers from exercising any
art they understand, nor any permission necessary. If
they are poor, they begin first as servants or journey-
men; and if they are sober, industrious, and frugal,
they soon become masters, establish themselves in bu-
siness, marry, raise families, and become respectable
citizens.

Also, persons of moderate fortunes and capitals, who,
having a number of children to provide for, are desir-
ous of bringing them up to industry, and to secure es-
tates for their posterity, have opportunities of doing it
n America, which Europe does not afford. There they
may be taught and practise profitable mechanic arts,
without incurring disgrace on that account, but on the
contrary acquiring respect by such abilities. There
small capitals laid out in lands, which daily become
more valuable by the increase of people, afford a solid
prospect of ample fortunes thereafter for those children.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 473

The writer of this has known several instances of large
tracts of land, bought, on what was then the frontier of
Pennsylvania, for ten pounds per hundred acres, which,
when the settlements had been extended far beyond
them, sold readily, without any improvement made
upon them, for three pounds per acre. The acre in
America is the same with the English acre, or the acre
of Normandy.

Those, who desire to understand the state of govern-
ment in America, would do well to read the constitu-
tions of the several States, and the articles of confede-
ration that bind the whole together for general pur-
poses, under the direction of one assembly, called the
Congress. These constitutions have been printed, by
order of Congress, in America; two editions of them
have also been printed in London ; and a good trans-
lation of them into French has lately been published
at Paris.

Several of the princes of Europe of late, from an
opinion of advantage to arise by producing all com-
modities and manufactures within their own dominions,
so as to diminish or render useless their importations,
have endeavoured to entice workmen from other coun-
tries by high salaries, privileges, &c. Many persons,
pretending to be skilled in various great manufactures,
imagining that America must be in want of them, and
that the Congress would probably be disposed to imi-
tate the princes above mentioned, have proposed to go
over, on condition of having their passages paid, lands
given, salaries appointed, exclusive privileges for terms
of years, &c. Such persons, on reading the articles
of confederation, will find, that the Congress have no
power committed to them, nor money put into their
hands, for such purposes; and that if any such en-
couragement is given, it must be by the government

VOL. II. 60 NN*

474 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

of some separate State. This, however, has rarely
been done in America ; and, when it has been done, it
has rarely succeeded, so as to establish a manufacture,
which the country was not yet so ripe for as to en-
courage private persons to set it up ; labor being gener-
ally too dear there, and hands difficult to be kept to-
gether, every one desiring to be a master, and the
cheapness of lands inclining many to leave trades for
agriculture. Some indeed have met with success, and
are carried on to advantage; but they are generally
such as require only a few hands, or wherein great
part of the work is performed by machines. Goods
that are bulky, and of so small value as not well to bear
the expense of freight, may often be made cheaper in
the country than they can be imported; and the manu-
facture of such goods will be profitable wherever there
is a sufficient demand. The farmers in America pro-
duce indeed a good deal of wool and flax ; and none is
exported, it is all worked up; but it is in the way of
domestic manufacture, for the use of the family. The
buying up quantities of wool and flax, with the design
to employ spinners, weavers, &,c., and form great es-
tablishments, producing quantities of linen and woollen
goods for sale, has been several times attempted in dif-
ferent provinces; but those projects have generally
failed, goods of equal value being imported cheaper.
And when the governments have been solicited to
support such schemes by encouragements, in money,
or by imposing duties on importation of such goods,
it has been generally refused, on this principle, that, if
the country is ripe for the manufacture, it may be car-
ried on by private persons to advantage ; and if not,
it is a folly to think of forcing nature. Great estab-
lishments of manufacture require great numbers of poor
to do the work for small wages; those poor are to be

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 475

found in Europe, but will not be found in America,
till the lands are all taken up and cultivated, and the
excess of people, who cannot get land, want employ-
ment. The manufacture of silk, they say, is natural
in France, as that of cloth in England, because each
country produces in plenty the first material; but if
England will have a manufacture of silk as well as that
of cloth, and France of cloth as well as that of silk,
these unnatural operations must be supported by mu-
tual prohibitions, or high duties on the importation of
each other's goods ; by which means the workmen are
enabled to tax the home consumer by greater prices,
while the higher wages they receive makes them neither
happier nor richer, since they only drink more and
work less. Therefore the governments in America do
nothing to encourage such projects. The people, by
this means, are not imposed on, either by the mer-
chant or mechanic. If the merchant demands too much
profit on imported shoes, they buy of the shoemaker;
and if he asks too high a price, they take them of the
merchant; thus the two professions are checks on each
other. The shoemaker, however, has, on the whole,
a considerable profit upon his labor in America, beyond
what he had in Europe, as he can add to his price a
sum nearly equal to all the expenses of freight and
commission, risk or insurance, &c., necessarily charged
w the merchant. And the case is the same with the
workmen in every other mechanic art.
that artisans generally live better and more easily in
America than in Europe; and such as are good econo-
mists make a comfortable provision for age, and
their children. Such may, therefore, remove wil

In the long-setuea countries of Europe all arts
trades, professions, fanns, &c., are so full, t

476 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

difficult for a poor man, who has children, to place them
where they may gain, or learn to gain, a decent liveli-
hood. The artisans, who fear creating future rivals in
business, refuse to take apprentices, but upon condi-
tions of money, maintenance, or the like, which the
parents are unable to comply with. Hence the youth
are dragged up in ignorance of every gainful art, and
obliged to become soldiers, or servants, or thieves, for
a subsistence. In America, the rapid increase of in-
habitants takes away that fear of rivalship, and artisans
willingly receive apprentices from the hope of profit by
their labor, during the remainder of the time stipulated,
after they shall be instructed. Hence it is easy for
poor families to get their children instructed; for the
artisans are so desirous of apprentices, that many of
them will even give money to the parents, to have
boys from ten to fifteen years of age bound appren-
tices to them till the age of twenty-one; and many
poor parents have, by that means, on their arrival in
the country, raised money enough to buy land suffi-
cient to establish themselves, and to subsist the rest
of their family by agriculture. These contracts for
apprentices are made before a magistrate, who regu-
lates the agreement according to reason and justice,
and, having in view the formation of a future and use-
ful citizen, obliges the master to engage by a written
indenture, not only that, during the time of service
stipulated, the apprentice shall be duly provided with
meat, drink, apparel, washing, and lodging, and, at its
expiration, with a complete new suit of clothes, but
also that he shall be taught to read, write, and cast
accounts; and that he shall be well instructed in the
art or profession of his master, or some other, by which
he may afterwards gain a livelihood, and be able in
his turn to raise a family. A copy of this indenture is

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 477

given to the apprentice or his friends, and the magis-
trate keeps a record of it, to which recourse may be
had, in case of failure by the master in any point of
performance. This desire among the masters, to have
more hands employed in working for them, induces
them to pay the passages of young persons, of both
sexes, who, on their arrival, agree to serve them one,
two, three, or four years; those, who have already
learned a trade, agreeing for a shorter term, in pro-
portion to their skill, and the consequent immediate
value of their service; and those, who have none,
agreeing for a longer term, in consideration of being
taught an art their poverty would not permit them to
acquire in their own country.

The almost general mediocrity of fortune that pre-
vails in America obliging its people to follow some
business for subsistence, those vices, that arise usually
from idleness, are in a great measure prevented. In-
dustry and constant employment are great preserva-
tives of the morals and virtue of a nation. Hence bad
examples to youth are more rare in America, which
must be a comfortable consideration to parents. To
this may be truly added, that serious religion, under
its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but
respected and practised. Atheism is unknown there;
infidelity rare and secret; so that persons may live
a great age in that country, without having their piety
shocked by meeting with either an atheist or an mfi-
del And the Divine Being seems to have mamfe
his' approbation of the mutual forbearance and kind-
ness with which the different sects treat each other,
by the remarkable prosperity with which He has been
pleased to favor the whole country.

478 FRANKLIN'S WRIT.NGS.

ON THE CRIMINAL LAWS
AND THE PRACTICE OF PRIVATEERING

The following paper was written in the form of a letter to
Mr. Benjamin Vaughan, and dated at Passy, March 14th, 1785.
It first appeared anonymously in a small volume published by
Sir Samuel Romilly, in the year 1786, being OBSERVATIONS on a
treatise by Dr. Madan, entitled " Thoughts on Executive Justice."
The letter contains remarks on the same publication, It was
communicated by Mr. Vaughan to Sir Samuel Romilly, who printed
it at the end of his OBSERVATIONS, under the title of " A Letter
from a Gentleman abroad to his Friend in England," and prefixed
to it an explanatory advertisement.

" The writer of the foregoing Observations," says he, " having
been favored with a copy of the following letter by a friend of his,
to whom it was addressed, thought he should render a very ac-
ceptable service to the public by printing it. At the same time
he cannot but feel it incumbent on him to make some apology for
publishing it in the form of an Appendix to a work, which it very
far surpasses in every kind of merit. The truth is, he was not at
liberty to print it any other manner. The simplicity of style and
liberality of thought, which distinguish it, cannot fail of discover-
ing its venerable author to such as are already acquainted with
his valuable writings. To those, who have not that good fortune,
the editor is not permitted to say more, than that it is the produc-
tion of one of the best and most eminent men of the present age."

This testimony is valuable from such a man as Sir Samuel
Romilly. And indeed the letter may well be classed among the
best of the author's writings, whether regarded as to the vigor and
clearness of the style, the benign spirit it breathes, or its bold
defence of the rights of humanity and justice. — EDITOR.

March 14th, 1785.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Among the pamphlets you latelj sent me was one
entitled " Thoughts on Executive Justice." In return

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

for that, I send you a French one on the same subject,
Observations concernant VExecution de Particle II. de
la Declaration sur le Vol. They are both addressed
to the judges, but written, as you will see, in a very
different spirit. The English author is for hanging all
thieves. The Frenchman is for proportioning punish-
ments to offences.

If we really believe, as we profess to believe, that
the law of Moses was the law of God, the dictate of
divine wisdom, infinitely superior to human; on what
principles do we ordain death as the punishment of
an offence, which, according to that law, was only to
be punished by a restitution of fourfold ? To put a
man to death for an offence which does not deserve
death, is it not a murder? And, as the French writer
says, Doit-on punir un delit contre la societe par un
crime contre la nature 1 *

Superfluous property is the creature of society.
Simple and mild laws were sufficient to guard the
property that was merely necessary. The savage's
bow, his hatchet, and his coat of skins, were suffi-
ciently secured, without law, by the fear of personal
resentment and retaliation. When, by virtue of
first laws, part of the society accumulated wealth and
grew powerful, they enacted others more severe, and
would protect their property at the expense of
inanity. This was abusing their power, and
nencino- a tyranny. If a savage, before he entered
into society, had been told, "Your neighbour by this
means may become owner of an hundred deer; but
your brother, or your son, or yourself, having no dee:
of your own, and being hungry, should kill one, <
infamous death must be the consequence; he n

* « Outfit an offence against society to be punished by a crime against

nature

480 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

probably have preferred his liberty, and his common
right of killing any deer, to all the advantages of
society that might be proposed to him.

That it is better a hundred guilty persons should
escape than that one innocent person should suffer, is
a maxim that has been long and generally approved;
never, that I know of, controverted. Even the san-
guinary author of the " Thoughts" agrees to it, adding
well, " that the very thought of injured innocence, and
much more that of suffering innocence, must awaken
all our tenderest and most compassionate feelings, and
at the same time raise our highest indignation against
the instruments of it. But," he adds, "there is no
danger of either, from a strict adherence to the laws."
Really ! Is it then impossible to make an unjust lav/ ?
and if the law itself be unjust, may it not be the very
"instrument" which ought to "raise the author's and
everybody's highest indignation"? I see, in the last
newspapers from London, that a woman is capitally
convicted at the Old Bailey, for privately stealing out
of a shop some gauze, value fourteen shillings and
threepence ; is there any proportion between the injury
done by a theft, value fourteen shillings and threepence,
and the punishment of a human creature, by death,
on a gibbet? Might not the woman, by her labor,
have made the reparation ordained by God, in paying
fourfold? Is not all punishment inflicted beyond the
merit of the offence, so much punishment of innocence ?
In this light, how vast is the annual quantity of not
only injured, but suffering innocence, in almost all the
civilized states of Europe !

But it seems to have been thought, that this kind
of innocence may be punished by way of preventing
crimes. I have read, indeed, of a cruel Turk in Bar-
bary, who, whenever he bought a new Christian slave,

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 481

ordered him immediately to be hung up by the legs,
and to receive a hundred blows of a cudgel on the
soles of his feet, that the severe sense of the punish-
ment, and fear of incurring it thereafter, might prevent
the faults that should merit it. Our author himself
would hardly approve entirely of this Turk's conduct
in the government of slaves ; and yet he appears to
recommend something like it for the government oi
English subjects, when he applauds the reply of Judge
Burnet to the convict horse-stealer, who, being asked
what he had to say why judgment of death should
not pass against him, and answering, than it was hard
to hang a man for only stealing a horse, was told by
the judge, "Man, thou art not to be hanged only
for stealing, but that horses may not be stolen."

The man's answer, if candidly examined, will I
imagine appear reasonable, as founded on the eternal
principle of justice and equity, that punishments should
be proportioned to offences ; and the judge's reply
brutal and unreasonable, though the writer "wishes all
judges to carry it with them whenever they go the
circuit, and to bear it in their minds as containing a
wise reason for all the penal statutes, which they are
called upon to put in execution. It at once illus-
trates," says he, " the true grounds and reasons of all
capital punishments whatsoever, namely, that every
man's property, as well as his life, may be held sacred
and inviolate." Is there then no difference in value
between property and life ? If I think it right, that
the crime of murder should be punished with death,
not only as an equal punishment of the crime, but to
prevent other murders, does it follow that I must ap-
prove of inflicting the same punishment for a little
invasion on my property by theft ? If I am not myself
so barbarous, so bloody-minded and revengeful, as to

VOL. II. 61 00

482 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

kill a fellow-creature for stealing from me fourteen shil-
lings and threepence, how can I approve of a law that
does it ? Montesquieu, who was himself a judge, en-
deavours to impress other maxims. He must have
known what humane judges feel on such occasions,
and what the effects of those feelings ; and, so far from
thinking that severe and excessive punishments pre-
vent crimes, he asserts, as quoted by our French wri-
ter, that

L'atrocite des loix en empeche Vexecution.

Lorsque la peine est sans mesurey on est souvent
oblige de lui preferer Vimpwiite.

La cause de tons les reldchemens vient de Vimpu-
nite des crimes, et non de la moderation des peines" '

It is said by those who know Europe generally,
that there are more thefts committed and punished an-
nually in England, than in all the other nations put to-
gether. If this be so, there must be a cause or causes
for such depravity in your common people. May not
one be the deficiency of justice and morality in your na-
tional government, manifested in your oppressive con-
duct to your subjects, and unjust wars on your neigh-
bours? View the long-persisted in, unjust monopo-
lizing treatment of Ireland at length acknowledged?
View the plundering government exercised by your
merchants in the Indies; the confiscating war made
upon the American colonies ; and, to say nothing of
those upon France and Spain, view the late war upon
Holland, which was seen by impartial .Europe in no
other light than that of a war of rapine and pillage ;
the hopes of an immense and easy prey being its only

* " The atrocity of laws prevents their being executed.

"When the punishment is excessive, it is often found necessary to
prefer impunity.

"The cause of all the violations of the laws comes from the impunity
of crimes, and not from the moderation of the penalties."

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

apparent, and probably its true and real motive and
encouragement.

Justice is as strictly due between neighbour nations
as between neighbour citizens. A highwayman is as
much a robber when he plunders in a gang, as when
single ; and a nation that make's an unjust war, is only
a. great gang. After employing your people in rob-
bing the Dutch, strange is it, that, being put out of
that employ by peace, they still continue robbing, and
rob one another ! Piraterie, as the French call it, or
privateering, is the universal bent of the English nation,
at home and abroad, wherever settled. No less than
seven hundred privateers were, it is said, commissioned
hi the last war ! These were fitted out by merchants,
to prey upon other merchants, who had never done
them any injury. Is there probably any one of those
privateering merchants of London, who were so ready
to rob the merchants of Amsterdam, that would not
readily plunder another London merchant of the next
street, if he could do it with impunity ? The avidity,
the alieni appetens, is the same ; it is the fear alone of
the gallows that makes the difference. How then can
a nation, which, among the honestest of its people, has
so many thieves by inclination, and whose government
encouraged and commissioned no less than seven hun-
dred gangs of robbers ; how can such a nation have
the face to condemn the crime in individuals, and hang
up twenty of them in a morning? It naturally puts
one in mind of a Newgate anecdote. One of the
prisoners complained, that in the night somebody had
taken his buckles out of his shoes ; " What, the devil ! "
says another, "have we then thieves among us? It
must not be suffered ; let us search out the rogue, and
pump him to death."

There is, however, one late instance of an English

484 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

merchant who will not profit by such ill-gotten gain.
He was, it seems, part-owner of a ship, which the other
owners thought fit to employ as a letter of marque,
and which took a number of French prizes. The
booty being shared, he has now an agent here in-
quiring, by an advertisement in the gazette, for those
who suffered the loss, in order to make them, as far
as in him lies, restitution. This conscientious man is
a Quaker. The Scotch Presbyterians were formerly as
tender ; for there is still extant an ordinance of the
town-council of Edinburgh, made soon after the Refor-
mation, " forbidding the purchase of prize goods, un-
der pain of losing the freedom of the burgh for ever,
with other punishment at the will of the magistrate ;
the practice of making prizes being contrary to good
conscience, and the rule of treating Christian brethren
as we would wish to be treated ; and such goods are
not to be sold by any godly men within this burgh"
The race of these godly men in Scotland is probably
extinct, or their principles abandoned ; since, as far as
that nation had a hand in promoting the war against
the colonies, prizes and confiscations are believed to
have been a considerable motive.

It has been for some time a generally received opin-
ion, that a military man is not to inquire whether a
war be just or unjust ; he is to execute his orders.
All princes who are disposed to become tyrants must
probably approve of this opinion, and be willing to
establish it ; but is it not a dangerous one ? since, on
that principle, if the tyrant commands his army to
attack and destroy, not only an unoffending neighbour
nation, but even his own subjects, the army is bound
to obey. A negro slave, in our colonies, being com-
manded by his master to rob or murder a neighbour,
or do any other immoral act, may refuse, and the

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 485

magistrate will protect him in his refusal. The slavery
then of a soldier is worse than that of a negro ! A con-
scientious officer, if not restrained by the apprehension
of its being imputed to another cause, may indeed
resign, rather than be employed in an unjust war ; but
the private men are slaves for life ; and they are per-
haps incapable of judging for themselves. We can
only lament their fate, and still more that of a sailor,
who is often dragged by force from his honest occupa-
tion, and compelled to imbrue his hands in, perhaps,
innocent blood.

But methinks it well behoves merchants (men more
enlightened by their education, and perfectly free from
any such force or obligation,) to consider well of the jus-
tice of a war, before they voluntarily engage a gang of
ruffians to attack their fellow merchants of a neigh-
bouring nation, to plunder them of their property, and
perhaps ruin them and their families, if they yield it ;
or to wound, maim, or murder them, if they endeavour
to defend it. Yet these things are done by Christian
merchants, whether a war be just or unjust; and it
can hardly be just on both sides. They are done by
English and American merchants, who, nevertheless,
complain of private theft, and hang by dozens the
thieves they have taught by their own example.

It is high time, for the sake of humanity, that a
stop were put to this enormity. The United States of
America, though better situated than any European
nation to make profit by privateering (most of the
trade of Europe, with the West Indies, passing before
their doors), are, as far as in them lies, endeavouring
to abolish the practice, by offering, in all their treaties
with other powers, an article, engaging solemnly, that, in
case of future war, no privateer shall be commissioned on
either side ; and that unarmed merchant- ships, on both •

oo*

486 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

sides, snail pursue their voyages unmolested.* This will
be a happy improvement of the law of nations. The
humane and the just cannot but wish general success to
the proposition. With unchangeable esteem and affec-
tion, ever yours,

B. FRANKLIN.

* This offer having been accepted by the late King of Prussia, a treaty
of amity and commerce was concluded between that monarch and the
United States, containing the following humane, philanthropic article ; in
the formation of which Dr. Franklin, as one of the American plenipotentia-
ries, was principally concerned, viz.

ART. XXIII.

" If war should arise between the two contracting parties, the merchants
of either country, then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain
nine months to collect their debts and settle their affairs, and may de-
part freely, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hin-
drance ; and all women and children, scholars of every faculty, cultiva-
tors of the earth, artisans, manufacturers, and fishermen, unarmed and
inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, and in general all others,
whose occupations are for the common subsistence and benefit of man-
kind, shall be allowed to continue their respective employments, and
shall not be molested in their persons, nor shall their houses and gooda
be burnt, or otherwise destroyed, nor their fields wasted, by the armed
. force of the enemy into whose power, by the events of war, they may
happen to fall ; but, if any thing is necessary to be taken from them
for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reason-
able price. And all merchants and trading vessels employed in ex-
changing the products of different places, and thereby rendering the
necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy to
be obtained, and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and un-
molested; and neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue
any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to
take or des*:oy such trading vessels, or interrupt such commerce." —
W. T. F.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 487

OBSERVATIONS ON WAR.

BY the original law of nations, war and extirpation
were the punishment of injury. Humanizing by degrees,
it admitted slavery instead of death ; a farther step was,
the exchange of prisoners instead of slavery ; another, to
respect more the property of private persons under con-
quest, and be content with acquired dominion. Why
should not this law of nations 'go on improving ? Ages
have intervened between its several steps ; but as know-
ledge of late increases rapidly, why should not those steps
be quickened? Why should it not be agreed to, as the
future law of nations, that in any war hereafter, the fol-
lowing description of men should be undisturbed, have
the protection of both sides, and be permitted to follow
their employments in security ? viz.

1. Cultivators of the earth, because they labor for the
subsistence of mankind.

2. Fishermen, for the same reason.

3. Merchants and traders in unarmed ships, who ac-
commodate different nations by communicating and ex-
changing the necessaries and conveniences of life.

4. Artists and mechanics, inhabiting and working in

open towns.

It is hardly necessary to add, that the hospitals
enemies should be unmolested ; — they ought to 1
assisted. It is for the interest of humanity in general,
that the occasions of war, and the inducements to it
should be diminished. If rapine be abolished, one
the encouragements to war is taken away; and peao
therefore more likely to continue and be lasting.

The practice of robbing merchants on the high seas, -
a remnant of the ancient piracy, -though it may be ac-
cidentally beneficial to particular persons, is far 1

488 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

being profitable to all engaged in it, or to the nation that
authorizes it. In the beginning of a war, some rich ships
are surprised and taken. This encourages the first ad-
venturers to fit out more armed vessels, and many others
to do the same. But the enemy at the same time become
more careful, arm their merchant-ships better, and ren-
der them not so easy to be taken ; they go also more
under the protection of convoys. Thus, while the pri-
vateers to take them are multiplied, the vessels subject
to be taken, and the chances of profit, are diminished ;
so that many cruises are made, wherein the expenses
overgo the gains ; and, as is the case in other lotteries,
though particulars have got prizes, the mass of adventur-
ers are losers, the whole expense of fitting out all the
privateers during a war being much greater than the
whole amount of goods taken.

Then there is the national loss of all the labor of so
many men during the time they have been employed in
robbing, who, besides spend what they get in riot, drunk-
enness, and debauchery, lose their habits of industry, are
rarely fit for any sober business after a peace, and serve
only to increase the number of highwaymen and house-
breakers. Even the undertakers, who have been fortu-
nate, are by sudden wealth led into expensive living, the
habit of which continues, when the means of supporting
it cease, and finally ruins them; a just punishment for
their having wantonly and unfeelingly ruined many
honest, innocent traders and their families, whose sub-
stance was employed in serving the common interest of
mankind.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 489

ON THE
ELECTIVE FRANCHISES

ENJOYED BY THE SMALL BOROUGHS IN ENGLAND.

Addressed to Sir Charles Wyvill, and accompanied by the follow-
ing note to him from the author, dated Passy, June 16th, 1785.—
" I send you herewith the sketch I promised you. Perhaps there
may be some use in publishing it; for, if the power of choosing
now in the boroughs continues to be allowed as a right, they may
think themselves more justifiable in demanding more for it, or hold-
ing back longer, than they would, if they find that it begins to be
considered as an abuse." — EDITOR.

No man, or body of men, in any nation, can have a
just right to any privilege or franchise not common to the
rest of the nation, without having done the nation some
service equivalent, for which the franchise or privilege
was the recompense or consideration.

No man, or body of men, can be justly deprived of a
common right, but for some equivalent offence or injury
done to the society in which he enjoyed that right.

If a number of men are unjustly deprived of a common
right, and the same is given in addition to the common
rights of another number, who have not merited such
addition, the injustice is double.

Few, if any, of the boroughs in England, ever per-
formed any such particular service to the nation, entitling
them to what they now claim as a privilege in elections.

Originally, in England, when the King issued his
writs calling upon counties, cities, and boroughs, to

VOL. ii. 62

490 FRANELIN'S WRITINGS.

depute persons who should meet him in Parliament,
the intention was to obtain by that means more per-
fect information of the general state of the kingdom, its
faculties, strength, and disposition; together with the
advice their accumulated wisdom might afford him in
"such arduous affairs of the realm" as he had to pro-
pose. And he might reasonably hope, that measures
approved by the deputies in such an assembly would,
on their return home, be by them well explained, and
rendered agreeable to their constituents and the na-
tion in general. At that time, being sent to Parliament
was not considered as being put into the way of pre-
ferment, or increase of fortune; therefore no bribe was
given to obtain the appointment. The deputies were
to be paid wages by their constituents; therefore the
being obliged to send and pay was considered rather
as a duty than a privilege. At this day, in New Eng-
land, many towns, who may and ought to send mem-
bers to the Assembly, sometimes neglect to do it; they
are then summoned to answer for their neglect, and
fined if they cannot give a good excuse ; such as some
common misfortune, or some extraordinary public ex-
pense, which disabled them from affording, conveniently,
the necessary wages. And, the wages allowed being
barely sufficient to defray the deputy's expense, no
solicitations are used to be chosen.

In England, as soon as the being sent to Parliament
was found to be a step towards acquiring both honor
and fortune, solicitations were practised, and, where they
were insufficient, money was given. Both the ambitious
and avaricious became candidates. But to solicit the
poor laborer for his vote being humiliating to the proud
man, and to pay for it hurting the lover of money, they,
when they met, joined in an act to diminish both these
inconveniences, by depriving the poor of the right of

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 491

voting, which certainly they were not empowered to
do by the electors their constituents, the majority of
whom were probably people of little property. The act
was, therefore, not only unjust, but void. These lower
people were, immediately afterwards, oppressed by
another act, empowering the justices to fix the hire of
day-laborers and their hours of work, and to send them
to the house of correction if they refused to work for
such hire; which was deposing them from their con-
dition of freemen, and making them literally slaves.

But this was taking from many freemen a common
right, and confirming it to a few. To give it back
again to the many is a different operation. Of this the
few have no just cause to complain, because they still
retain the common right they always had, and they
lose only the exclusive additional power which they
ought never to have had. And if they used it, when
they had it, as a means of obtaining money, they should
in justice, were it practicable, be obliged to refund
and distribute such money among those who had been
so unjustly deprived of their right of voting, or forfe

it to the public.

Corporations, therefore, or boroughs, who, from I
originally called to send deputies to Parliament, when
it was considered merely as a duty, and not as a par-
ticular privilege, and therefore was never purchased
by any equivalent service to the public, continue
send now that by a change of times it affords them
profit in bribes, or emoluments of various kinds, have
in reality no right to such advantages; which are b
sides in effect prejudicial to the nation, some of thos
who buy thinking they may also sell.

They should therefore, in justice, be immediatelj
deprived of such pretended right, and reduced
condition of common freemen.

492 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

But they are perhaps too strong, and their interest too
weighty, to permit such justice to be done. And a re-
gard for public good in these people, influencing a vol-
untary resignation, is not to be expected.

If that be the case, it may be necessary to submit to
the power of present circumstances, passions, and preju-
dices, and purchase, since we can do no better, their
consent ; as men, when they cannot otherwise recover
property unjustly detained from them, advertise a re-
ward to whoever will restore it, promising that no ques-
tions shall be asked.

SIR CHARLES WYVILL'S ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING

PAPER.

Paris, 17 June, 1785.

SIR,

I have received the honor of your letter of the 16th
instant, accompanied with a paper, in which you have
proved, by a short train of clear and satisfactory reason-
ing, that the elective franchise, now enjoyed by the small
boroughs in England, is not an absolute right, which can
only be forfeited on condition of misusage, but that it is
a privilege conferred upon them in different periods of
our history with partiality, and in a manner injurious to
the common right of representation ; and consequently,
that it is a privilege justly resumable by the state, with-
out the consent of such boroughs previously obtained,
without any previous proof of their delinquency, or any
compensation for their abolished franchise ; at the same
time, you have admitted the expediency, in the present
state of our constitution, and under the various disadvan-
tages attending an attempt to restore it, that a pecuniary
offer should be proposed, as an inducement to the small
boroughs to make a voluntary surrender of their obnox-
ious privilege.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 493

Accept, Sir, my best thanks for this very kind commu-
nication of your sentiments on a subject of much impor-
tance to the happiness of England. From their own in-
trinsic solidity, those sentiments must have great weight
with every unprejudiced mind, even if it should not be
thought advisable to apprize the public. They are the
sentiments of a man to whose ability and persevering
virtue the American States are principally indebted for
their political salvation. But, highly as I esteem the wis-
dom of your opinion and advice, I place a still higher
value on that philanthropy, which has induced you to
bestow so much attention on this subject, in the midst of
your many urgent avocations, when just on the point of
leaving Europe to return to America ; I consider this, not
only as a mark of your general benevolence, but as a proof
that your peculiar good-will to England, lately our com-
mon country, has neither been diminished by any per-
sonal disgust, nor impaired by the hostilities of an unhap-
py civil war. And I trust that, on this occasion, your
benevolence has not been misplaced; since the advocates
for a reformation of the English Parliament have been,
I believe, without exception, zealous opponents of the
American war; and the success of their attempt to im-
prove the constitution of England may possibly conduct
our two countries, in due time, to that modified reunion
which recent events will admit, and which you seem to
agree with me in thinking would be equally honorable
and advantageous to both.

I am, with the highest respect, your obliged and
most obedient servant,

VOL. II.

C. WYVILL.
PP

494 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

MILITIA PREFERABLE TO REGULAR TROOPS.

Abbe Morellet's Questions and B. Franklin's Answers.

" Je prie Monsieur Franklin de vouloir bien repondre
aux questions suivantes — by a yes or no.

Croit-il que les Etats Unis puissent dans la suite et
apres leur independance reconnue se passer de troupes
regulieres toujours sur pied?" — Yes.

" Feront-ils mieux de n'avoir que des milices nation-
ales ? " — Certainly.

"Des milices couteront-elles moins cher a 1'etat ou
plutot a la nation ; car ne peut-on pas dire, que, dans un
etat de choses ou tous les citoyens doivent s'exercer a
porter les armes, il y a en fin de compte, en perte de
terns, en depenses pour Parmement, pour l'habillement,
pour le rassemblement des troupes a certains terns de
1'annee, &c., une depense reelle plus grande que celle
qu'il faudroit pour tenir sur pied un petit nombre de
troupes regulieres ? "

Supposing a general militia to be equally expensive
with a body of regular troops, yet the militia is prefera-
ble ; because the whole, being especially disciplined, has
nothing to fear from a part.

" Monsieur Franklin croit-il qu'on puisse entretenir en
Amerique un corps de troupes sur pied dans chaque
province confederee sans mettre la liberte en danger ? "

Europe was without regular troops till lately. One
powerful prince keeping an army always on foot makes it
necessary for his neighbour to do the same to prevent
surprise. We have no such dangerous neighbours in
America. We shall probably keep magazines of arms
and ammunition always filled, and no European power
will ever find us so unprovided as England found us at

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 495

the beginning of this war, or can prepare to invade us
with a sufficient force in so short a time as not to give us
time sufficient to discipline force sufficient to repel the
invader.

Mr. F. therefore thinks, that, to avoid not only the
expense, but the danger of keeping up a body of regular
troops in time of peace, none of the States separately will
do it, nor the Congress for the whole.

ON. SENDING FELONS TO AMERICA.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE.

SIR,

WE may all remember the time when our mother
country, as a mark of her parental tenderness, emptied
her gaols into our habitations, "for the BETTER peo-
pling," as she expressed it, "of the colonies." It is
certain that no due returns have yet been made for
these valuable consignments. We are therefore much
in her debt on that account; and, as she is of late
clamorous for the payment of all we owe her, and
some of our debts are of a kind not so easily dis-
charged, I am for doing however what is in our
power. It will show our good-will as to the resl
The felons she planted among us have produced
such an amazing increase, that we are now enabled
to make ample remittance in the same commoc
And since the wheelbarrow law is not found e
to reform them, and many of our vessels are idle through
her restraints on our trade, why should we not employ
those vessels in transporting the felons to Britain

I was led into this thought by perusing the
of a petition to Parliament, which fell lately by accident

496 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

into my hands. It has no date, but I conjecture from
some circumstances, that it must have been about the
year 1767 or 1768. (It seems, if presented, it had no
effect, since the act passed.) I imagine it may not be
unacceptable to your readers, and therefore transcribe
it for your paper ; viz.

To the Honorable the Knights, Citizens, and Bur-
gesses of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled,

The PETITION of B. F., Agent for the Province 6f

Pennsylvania ;

\
Most humbly showeth;

That the transporting of felons from England to the
plantations in America, is, and hath long been, a great
grievance to the said plantations hi general.

That the said felons, being landed in America, not
only continue their evil practices to the annoyance of
his Majesty's good subjects there, but contribute greatly
to corrupt the morals of the servants and poorer people
among whom they are mixed.

That many of the said felons escape from the servi-
tude to which they were destined, into other colonies,
where their condition is not known ; and, wandering at
large from one populous town to another, commit many
burglaries, robberies, and murders, to the great terror
of the people ; and occasioning heavy charges for ap-
prehending and securing such felons, and bringing
them to justice.

That your petitioner humbly conceives the easing
one part of the British dominions of their felons, by bur-
thening another part with the same felons, cannot
increase the common happiness of his Majesty's sub-
jects, and that therefore the trouble and expense of
transporting them is upon the whole altogether use-
less.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 497

That your petitioner, nevertheless, observes with
extreme concern in the votes of Friday last, that leave
is given to bring in a bill for extending to Scotland,
the act made in the fourth year of the reign of King
George the First, whereby the aforesaid grievances are,
as he understands, to be greatly increased by allowing
Scotland also to transport its felons to America.

Your petitioner therefore humbly prays, in behalf of
Pennsylvania, and the other plantations in America, that
the House would take the premises into consideration,
and in their great wisdom and goodness repeal all acts,
and clauses of acts, for transporting of felons ; or, if
this may not at present be done, that they would at
least reject the proposed bill for extending the said acts
to Scotland ; or, if it be thought fit to allow of such
extension, that then the said extension may be carried
further, and the plantations be also, by an equitable
clause in the same bill, permitted to transport their
felons to Scotland.

And your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall pray, &c.

The petition, I am informed, was not received by the
House, and the act passed.

On second thoughts, I am of opinion, that besides
employing our own vessels, as above proposed, every
English ship arriving in our ports with goods for sale,
should be obliged to give bond, before she is permitted
to trade, engaging that she will carry back to Britain
at least one felon for every fifty tons of her burthen.
Thus we shall not only discharge sooner our debts,
but furnish our old friends with the means of "better
peopling," and with more expedition, their promising
new colony of Botany Bay.

I am yours, &c. A. Z.

VOL. ii. 63 PP*

498 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

THE RETORT COURTEOUS.

" John Oxly, pawnbroker of Bethnal Green, was indicted for
assaulting Jonathan Boldsworth on the highway, putting him in
fear, and taking from him one silver watch, value 5/. 5s. The
prisoner pleaded, that, having sold the watch to the prosecutor,
and being immediately after informed by a person who knew
him, that he was not likely to pay for the same, he had only
followed him and taken the watch back again. But, it appearing
on the trial, that, presuming he had not been known when he
committed the robbery, he had afterwards sued the prosecutor
for the debt, on his note of hand, he was found guilty, death."

Old Bailey Sessions Paper, 1747.

I CHOSE the above extract from the proceedings of
the Old Bailey in the trial of criminals, as a motto or text,
on which to amplify in my ensuing discourse. But on
second thoughts, having given it forth, I shall, after the
example of some other preachers, quit it for the pres-
ent, and leave to my readers, if I should happen to
have any, the task of discovering what relation there
may possibly be between my text and my sermon.

During some years past, the British newspapers have
been filled with reflections on the inhabitants of Amer-
ica, for not paying their old debts to English merchants.
And from these papers the same reflections have been
translated into foreign prints, and circulated throughout
Europe; whereby the American character, respecting
honor, probity, and justice in commercial transactions,
is made to suffer hi the opinion of strangers, which may
be attended with pernicious consequences.

At length we are told that the British court has
taken up the complaint, and seriously offered it as a
reason for refusing to evacuate the frontier posts accord-
ing to treaty. This gives a kind of authority to the
charge, and makes it now more necessary to examine

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 499

the matter thoroughly; to inquire impartially into the
conduct of both nations ; take blame to ourselves where
we have merited it ; and, where it may be fairly done,
mitigate the severity of the censures that are so liberally
bestowed upon us.

We may begin by observing, that before the war
our mercantile character was good. In proof of this
(and a stronger proof can hardly be desired), the votes
of the House of Commons in 1774-5 have recorded a
petition signed by the body of the merchants of London
trading to North America, hi which they expressly set
forth, not only that the trade was profitable to the king-
dom, but that the remittances and payments were as
punctually and faithfully made, as in any other branch
of commerce whatever. These gentlemen were cer-
tainly competent judges, and as to that point could
have no interest hi deceiving the government.

The making of these punctual remittances was
however a difficulty. Britain, acting on the selfish
and perhaps mistaken principle of receiving nothing
from abroad that could be produced at home, would
take no articles of our produce that interfered with
any of her own; and what did not interfere, she
loaded with heavy duties. We had no mines of gold
or silver. We were therefore obliged to run the world
over, in search of something that would be received
in England. We sent our provisions and lumber to
the West Indies, where exchange was made for sugars,
cotton, &c. to remit. We brought molasses from
thence, distilled it into rum, with which we traded
in Africa, and remitted the gold dust to England.
We employed ourselves in the fisheries, and sent the
fish we caught, together with quantities of wheat, flour,
and rice, to Spain and Portugal from whence the
imount was remitted to England in cash or bills of

500 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

exchange. Great quantities of our rice, too, went to
Holland, Hamburg, &c., and the value of that was also
sent to Britain. Add to this, that contenting our-
selves with paper, all the hard money we could pos-
sibly pick up among the foreign West India Islands,
was continually sent off to Britain, not a ship going
thither from America without some chests of those
precious metals.

Imagine this great machine of mutually advantageous
commerce, going roundly on, in full train; our ports all
busy, receiving and selling British manufactures, and
equipping ships for the circuitous trade, that was finally
to procure the necessary remittances ; the seas cov-
ered with those ships, and with several hundred sail
of our fishermen, all working for Britain ; and then let
us consider what effect the conduct of Britain, in 1774
and 1775 and the following years, must naturally have
on the future ability of our merchants to make the
payments in question.

We will not here enter into the motives of that
conduct ; they are well enough known, and not to her
honor. The first step was shutting up the port of
Boston by an act of Parliament; the next, to prohibit
by another the New England fishery. An army and
a fleet were sent to enforce these acts. Here was a
stop put at once to all the mercantile operations of
one of the greatest trading cities of America ; the fish-
ing vessels all laid up, and the usual remittances, by
way of Spain, Portugal, and the Straits, rendered im-
possible. Yet the cry was now begun against us,
These JYew England people do not pay their debts I

The ships of the fleet employed themselves in cruis-
ing separately all along the coast. The marine gentry
are seldom so well contented with their pay, as not
to like a little plunder. They stopped and seized.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 501

under slight pretences, the American vessels they met
with, belonging to whatever colony. This checked the
commerce of them all. Ships, loaded with cargoes
destined either directly or indirectly to make remit-
tance in England, were not spared. If the differences
between the two countries had been then accommo-
dated, these unauthorized plunderers would have been
called to account, and many of their exploits must have
been found piracy. But what cured all this, set their
minds at ease, made short work, and gave full scope
to their piratical disposition, was another act of Parlia-
ment, forbidding any inquisition into those past facts,
declaring them all lawful, and all American property
to be forfeited, whether on sea or land, and authorizing
the King's British subjects to take, seize, sink, burn,
or destroy, whatever they could find of it. The prop-
erty suddenly, and by surprise taken from our mer-
chants by the operation of this act, is incomputable.
And yet the cry did not diminish, These Americans
don't pay their debts !

Had the several states of America, on the publication
of this act seized all British property in their power,
whether consisting of lands in their country, ships in
their harbours, or debts in the hands of their mer-
chants, by way of retaliation, it is probable a great
part of the world would have deemed such conduct
justifiable. They, it seems, thought otherwise, and it
was done only in one or two States, and that under
particular circumstances of provocation. And not hav-
ing thus abolished all demands, the cry subsists, that
the Americans should pay their debts !

General Gage, being with his army (before the de-
claration of open war) in peaceable possession of
Boston, shut its gates, and placed guards all around
to prevent its communication with the country.

502 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

inhabitants were on the point of starving. The general,
though they were evidently at his mercy, fearing that,
while they had any arms in their hands, frantic despera-
tion might possibly do him some mischief, proposed
to them a capitulation, in which he stipulated, that if
they would deliver up their arms, they might leave the
town with their family and goods. In faith of this
agreement, they delivered their arms. But when they
began to pack up for their departure, they were in-
formed, that by the word goods, the general understood
only household goods, that is, their beds, chairs, and
tables, not merchant goods; those he was informed
they were indebted for to the merchants of England,
and he must secure them for the creditors. They were
accordingly all seized, to an immense value, what had
been paid for not excepted. It is to be supposed,
though we have never heard of it, that this very hon-
orable general, when he returned home, made a just
distribution of those goods, or their value, among the
said creditors. But the cry nevertheless continued,
These Boston people do not pay their debts !

The army, having thus ruined Boston, proceeded
to different parts of the continent. They got posses-
sion of all the capital trading towns. The troops gorged
themselves with plunder. They stopped all the trade
of Philadelphia for near a year, of Rhode Island longer,
of New York near eight years, of Charleston in South
Carolina and Savannah in Georgia, I forget how long.
This continued interruption of their commerce ruined
many merchants. The army also burnt to the ground
the fine towns of Falmouth and Charlestown near
Boston, New London, Fairfield, Norwalk, Esopus, Nor-
folk, the chief trading town in Virginia, besides in-
numerable tenements and private farm-houses. This
wanton destruction of property operated doubly to the

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 503

disabling of our merchants, who were importers from
Britain, in making their payments, by the immoderate
loss they sustained themselves, and also the loss suffered
by their country debtors, who had bought of them
the British goods, and who were now rendered unable
to pay. The debts to Britain of course remained undis-
charged, and the clamor continued, These knavish
Americans will not pay us !

Many of the British debts, particularly in Virginia
and the Carolinas, arose from the sales made of negroes
in those provinces by the British Guinea merchants.
These, with all before in the country, were employed
when the war came on, in raising tobacco and rice for
remittance in payment of British debts. An order
arrives from England, advised by one of their most
celebrated moralists, Dr. Johnson, in his Taxation no
Tyranny, to excite these slaves to rise, cut the throats
of their purchasers, and resort to the British army,
where they should be rewarded with freedom. This
was done, and the planters were thus deprived of
near thirty thousand of their working people. Yet the
demand for those sold and unpaid still exists ; and the
cry continues against the Virginians and Carolinians,
that they do not pay their debts !

Virginia suffered great loss in this kind of property
by another ingenious and humane British invention.
Having the small-pox in their army while in that coun-
try, they inoculated some of the negroes they took as
prisoners belonging to a number of plantations, and
then let them escape, or sent them, covered with the
pock, to mix with and spread the distemper among
the others of their color, as well as among the white
country people; which occasioned a great mortality of
both and certainly did not contribute to the enabling
debtors in making payment. The war too having put

504 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

a stop to the exportation of tobacco, there was a great
accumulation of several years' produce in all the public
inspecting warehouses and private stores of the planters.
Arnold, Phillips, and Cornwallis, with British troops, then
entered and overran the country, burnt all the in-
specting and other stores of tobacco, to the amount of
some hundred ship-loads ; all which might, on the re-
turn of peace, if it had not been thus wantonly destroyed,
have been remitted to British creditors. But these
d — d Virginians, why don't they pay their debts 1

Paper money was in those times our universal cur-
rency. But, it being the instrument with which we
combated our enemies, they resolved to deprive us of
its use by depreciating it ; and the most effectual means
they could contrive was to counterfeit it. The artists
they employed performed so well, that immense quan-
tities of these counterfeits, which issued from the British
government in New York, were circulated among the
inhabitants of all the States, before the fraud was de-
tected. This operated considerably in depreciating the
whole mass, first, by the vast additional quantity, and
next by the uncertainty in distinguishing the true from
the false ; and the depreciation was a loss to all and the
ruin of many. It is true our enemies gained a vast
deal of our property by the operation ; but it did not go
into the hands of our particular creditors ; so their de-
mands still subsisted, and we were still abused for not
paying our debts !

By the seventh article of the treaty of peace, it was
solemnly stipulated, that the King's troops, in evacua-
ting their posts in the United States, should not carry
away with them any negroes. In direct violation of
this article, General Carleton, in evacuating New
York, carried off all the negroes that were with his
army, to the amount of several hundreds. It is not

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 505

doubted that he must have had secret orders to jus-
tify him in this transaction; but the reason given out
was, that, -js they had quitted their masters and joined
the King's troops on the faith of proclamations promising
them their liberty, the national honor forbade returning
them into slavery. The national honor was, it seemed,
pledged to both parts of a contradiction, and its wisdom,
since it could not do it with both, chose to keep faith
rather with its old black, than its new white friends;
a circumstance demonstrating clear as daylight, that, in
making a present peace, they meditated a future war,
and hoped, that, though the promised manumission of
slaves had not been effectual in the last, in the next it
might be more successful; and that, had the negroes
been forsaken, no aid could be hereafter expected from
those of the color in a future invasion. The treaty
however with us was thus broken almost as soon as
m^de, and this by the people who charge us with
breaking it by not paying perhaps for some of the very
negroes carried off in defiance of it. Why should
England observe treaties, when these Americans da not
pay their debts?

Unreasonable, however, as this clamor appears in
general, I do not pretend, by exposing it, to justify those
debtors who are still able to pay, and refuse it on pre-
tence of injuries suffered by the war. Public injuries can
never discharge private obligations. Contracts between
merchant and merchant should be sacredly observed,
where the ability remains, whatever maybe the madness
of ministers. It is therefore to be hoped the fourth
article of the treaty of peace which stipulates, that no
leeal obstruction shall be given to the payment of debts
contracted before the war, will be punctually carried into
execution, and that every law in every State which
impedes it, may be immediately repealed. Those laws

VOL. ii. 64

506 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

were indeed made with honest intentions, that the half-
ruined debtor, not being too suddenly pressed by some,
might have time to arrange and recover his affairs so as
to do justice to all his creditors. But, since the inten-
tion in making those acts has been misapprehended,
and the acts wilfully misconstrued into a design of
defrauding them, and now made a matter of reproach
to us, I think it will be right to repeal them all. Indi-
vidual Americans may be ruined, but the country will
save by the operation; since these unthinking, merciless
creditors must be contented with all that is to be had,
instead of all that may be due to them, and the accounts
will be settled by insolvency. When all have paid that
can pay, I think the remaining British creditors, who
suffered by the inability of their ruined debtors, have
some right to call upon their own government (which
by its bad projects has ruined those debtors) for a
compensation. A sum given by Parliament for this
purpose would be more properly disposed, than in re-
warding pretended loyalists, who fomented the war.
And, the heavier the sum, the more tendency it might
have to discourage such destructive projects hereafter.

Among the merchants of Britain, trading formerly to
America, there are to my knowledge many considerate
and generous men, who never joined in this clamor,
and who, on the return of peace, though by the treaty
entitled to an immediate suit for their debts, were kindly
disposed to give their debtors reasonable time for re-
storing their circumstances, so as to be able to make
payment conveniently. These deserve the most grate-
ful acknowledgments. And indeed it was in their favor,
and perhaps for their sakes in favor of all other British
creditors, that the law of Pennsylvania, though since
much exclaimed against, was made, restraining the re-
covery of old debts during a certain time. For this

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 507

restraint was general, respecting domestic as well as
British debts, it being thought unfair, in cases where
there was not sufficient for all, that the inhabitants,
taking advantage of their nearer situation, should swal-
low the whole, excluding foreign creditors from any
share. And in cases where the favorable part of the
foreign creditors were disposed to give time, with the
views abovementioned, if others less humane and con-
siderate were allowed to bring immediate suits and ruin
the debtor, those views would be defeated. When this
law expired in September, 1784, a new one was made,
continuing for some time longer the restraint with re-
spect to domestic debts, but expressly taking it away
where the debt was due from citizens of the State to
any of the subjects of Great Britain;* which shows
clearly the disposition of the Assembly, and that the
fair intentions above ascribed to them in making the
former act, are not merely the imagination of the writer.
Indeed, the clamor has been much augmented by
numbers joining it, who really had no claim on our coun-
try. Every debtor in Britain, engaged in whatever
trade, when he had no better excuse to give for delay
of payment, accused the want of returns from America.
And the indignation, thus excited against us, now ap-
pears so general among the English, that one would
imagine their nation, which is so exact in expecting

* Extract from an Act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, enti-
tled « An Act for directing the Mode of recovering Debts contracted
before the first Day of January, in the Year of our Lord one 1
seven hundred and seventy-seven."

Exception in Favor of British Creditors.

« Sect 7 And provided also, and be it further enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that this Act, nor any thing therein contained, shall not exl
o e construed to extend, to any debt or debts which were due before the
fourth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-s^ by any oi
the citizens of the State, to any of the subjects of Great Bntain.

508 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

punctual payment from all the rest of the world, must
be at home the model of justice, the very pattern of
punctuality. Yet, if one were disposed to recriminate,
it would not be difficult to find sufficient matter in sev-
eral parts of their conduct. But this I forbear. The
two separate nations are now at peace, and there can
be no use in mutual provocations to fresh enmity. If I
have shown clearly that the present inability of many
American merchants to discharge their debts, contracted
before the war, is not so much their fault, as the fault
of the crediting nation, who, by making an unjust war
on them, obstructing their commerce, plundering and
devastating their country, were the cause of that ina-
bility, I have answered the purpose of writing this
paper. How far the refusal of the British court to exe-
cute the treaty in delivering up the frontier posts, may,
on account of that deficiency of payment, be justifia-
ble, is cheerfully submitted to the world's impartial
judgment.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE SUPREMEST COURT OF JUDICATURE
IN PENNSYLVANIA, VIZ. THE COURT OF THE PRESS.

FROM THE FEDERAL GAZETTE, SEPTEMBER 12TH, 1789.

Power of this Court.

IT may receive and promulgate accusations of all
kinds, against all persons and characters among the citi-
zens of the State, and even against all inferior courts ;
and may judge, sentence, and condemn to infamy, not
only private individuals, but public bodies, &,c., with or
without inquiry or hearing, at the court's discretion.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 509

In whose Favor and for whose Emolument this Court
is established.

In favor of about one citizen in five hundred, who, by
education or practice in scribbling, has acquired a tolera-
ble style as to grammar and construction, so as to bear
printing ; or who is possessed of a press and a few types.
This five hundredth part of the citizens have the privilege
of accusing and abusing the other four hundred and
ninety-nine parts at their pleasure ; or they may hire out
their pens and press to others for that purpose.

Practice of the Court.

It is not governed by any of the rules of common
courts of law. The accused is allowed no grand jury to
judge of the truth of the accusation before it is publicly
made, nor is the name of the accuser made known to
him, nor has he an opportunity of confronting the wit-
nesses against him; for they are kept in the dark, as in
the Spanish court of Inquisition. Nor is there any petty
jury of his peers, sworn to try the truth of the charges.
The proceedings are also sometimes so rapid, that an
honest, good citizen may find himself suddenly and un-
expectedly accused, and in the same morning judged
and condemned, and sentence pronounced against him,
that he is a rogue and a villain. Yet, if an officer of this
court receives the slightest check for misconduct in I
his office, he claims immediately the rights of a free cit
zen by the constitution, and demands to know his accu-
ser, to confront the witnesses, and to have a fair trial
a jury of his peers.

The Foundation of its Authority.
It is said to be founded on an article in the State
Constitution, which establishes the liberty of the press ; a

Q.Q

510 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

liberty which every Pennsylvanian will fight and die for ;
though few of us, I believe, have distinct ideas of its
nature and extent. It seems indeed somewhat like the
liberty of the press that felons have, by the common law
of England, before conviction, that is, to be pressed to
death or hanged. If by the liberty of the press were un-
derstood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of
public measures and political opinions, let us have as
much of it as you please ; but, if it means the liberty of
affronting, calumniating, and defaming one another, I,
for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of
it whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the
law, and shall cheerfully consent to exchange my liberty
of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused
myself.

By whom this Court is commissioned or constituted.

It is not by any commission from the Supreme Ex-
ecutive Council, who might previously judge of the abili-
ties, integrity, knowledge, &,c. of the persons to be ap-
pointed to this great trust, of deciding upon the charac-
ters and good fame of the citizens; for this court is
above that Council, and may accuse, judge, and condemn
it, at pleasure. Nor is it hereditary, as in the court of
dernier resort, in the peerage of England. But any man
who can procure pen, ink, and paper, with a press, a
few types, and a huge pair of BLACKING balls, may
commissionate himself; and his court is immediately es-
tablished in the plenary possession and exercise of its
rights. For, if you make the least complaint of the
judge's conduct, he daubs his blacking balls in your face
wherever he meets you ; and, besides tearing your
private character to flitters, marks you out for the odium
of the public, as an enemy to the liberty of the press.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 5U

Of the natural Support of these Courts.
Their support is founded in the depravity of such
minds, as have not been mended by religion, nor im-
proved by good education ;

" There is a lust in man no charm can tame,
Ofloudly publishing his neighbour's shame."

Hence ;

" On eagle's wings immortal scandals fly,
While virtuous actions are but born and die."

DRYDEN.

Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his
neighbour, will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And of
those who, despairing to rise into distinction by their vir-
tues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level
with themselves, there are a number sufficient in every
great town to maintain one of these courts by their sub-
scriptions. A shrewd observer once said, that, in walk-
ing the streets in a slippery morning, one might see
where the good-natured people lived by the ashes
thrown on the ice before their doors ; probably he would
have formed a different conjecture of the temper of those
whom he might find engaged in such a subscription.

Of the Checks proper to be established against the Jlbuse
of Power in these Courts.

Hitherto there are none. But since so much has
been written and published on the federal Constitution,
and the necessity of checks in all other parts of good
government has been so clearly and learnedly explained,
I find myself so far enlightened as to suspect some
check may be proper in this part also ; but I have been
at a loss to imagine any that may not be construed an
infringement of the sacred liberty of the press. At
length, however, I think I have found one that, in-
stead of diminishing general liberty, shall augment it;
which is, by restoring to the people a species of liberty,

512 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

of which they have been deprived by our laws, I mean
the liberty of the cudgel. In the rude state of society
prior to the existence of laws, if one man gave another
ill language, the affronted person would return it by a
box on the ear, and, if repeated, by a good drubbing ;
and this without offending against any law. But now
the right of making such returns is denied, and they are
punished as breaches of the peace ; while the right of
abusing seems to remain in full force, the laws made
against it being rendered ineffectual by the liberty of the
press.

My proposal then is, to leave the liberty of the press
untouched, to be exercised in its full extent, force, and
vigor ; but to permit the liberty of the cudgel to go with
itparipassu. Thus, my fellow-citizens, if an impudent
writer attacks your reputation, dearer to you perhaps than
your life, and puts his name to the charge, you may go
to him as openly and break his head. If he conceals
himself behind the printer, and you can nevertheless dis-
cover who he is, you may in like manner way -lay him
in the night, attack him behind, and give him a good
drubbing. Thus far goes my project as to private resent-
ment and retribution. But if the public should ever hap-
pen to be affronted, as it ought to be, with the conduct of
such writers, I would not advise proceeding immediately
to these extremities ; but that we should in moderation
content ourselves with tarring and feathering, and tossing
them in a blanket.

If, however, it should be thought that this proposal of
mine may disturb the public peace, I would then humbly
recommend to our legislators to take up the considera-
tion of both liberties, that of the press, and that of the
cudgel, and by an explicit law mark their extent and
limits ; and, at the same time that they secure the per-
son of a citizen from assaults, they would likewise
provide for the security of his reputation.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 513

PLAN
FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE FREE BLACKS.

THE business relative to free blacks shall be trans-
acted by a committee of twenty-four persons, annually
elected by ballot, at the meeting of this Society,* in the
month called April; and, in order to perform the dif-
ferent services with expedition, regularity, and energy,
this committee shall resolve itself into the following
sub -committees, viz.

I. A Committee of Inspection, who shall superintend
the morals, general conduct, and ordinary situation of
the free negroes, and afford them advice and instruc-
tion, protection from wrongs, and other friendly offices.

II. A Committee of Guardians, who shall place out
children and young people with suitable persons, that
they may (during a moderate time of apprenticeship or
servitude) learn some trade or other business of sub-
sistence. The committee may effect this partly by a
persuasive influence on parents and the persons con-
cerned, and partly by cooperating with the laws, which
are, or may be, enacted for this and similar purposes.
In forming contracts on these occasions, the committee
shall secure to the Society, as far as may be practica-
ble, the right of guardianship over the persons so bound.

III. A Committee of Education, who shall superin-
tend the school instruction of the children and youth
of the free blacks. They may either influence them
to attend regularly the schools already established in
this city, or form others with this view ; they shall, in
either case, provide, that the pupils may receive such
learning as is necessary for their future situation in life,

• The Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief
of Free Blacks, mentioned in the next article.

VOL. ii. 65

514 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

and especially a deep impression of the most important
and generally acknowledged moral and religious prin-
ciples. They shall also procure and preserve a regular
record of the marriages, births, and manumissions of
all free blacks.

IV. A Committee of Employ, who shall endeavour to
procure constant employment for those free negroes
who are able to work ; as the want of this would oc-
casion poverty, idleness, and many vicious habits. This
committee will, by sedulous inquiry, be enabled to find
common labor for a great number ; they will also pro-
vide, that such as indicate proper talents may learn
various trades, which may be done by prevailing upon
them to bind themselves for such a term of years as shall
compensate their masters for the expense and trouble of
instruction and maintenance. The committee may at-
tempt the institution of some useful and simple manufac-
tures, which require but little skill, and also may assist,
in commencing business, such as appear to be qualified
for it.

Whenever the committee of inspection shall find per-
sons of any particular description requiring attention,
they shall immediately direct them to the committee of
whose care they are the proper objects.

In matters of a mixed nature, the committees shall
confer, and, if necessary, act in concert. Affairs of great
importance shall be referred to the whole committee.

The expense, incurred by the prosecution of this plan,
shall be defrayed by a fund, to be formed by donations
or subscriptions for these particular purposes, and to be
kept separate from the other funds of this Society.

The committee shall make a report of their pro-
ceedings, and of the state of their stock, to the Soci-
ety, at their quarterly meetings, in the months called
April and October.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 515

AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC;

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ABO-
LITION OF SLAVERY, AND THE RELIEF OF FREE NEGROES UN-
LAWFULLY HELD IN BONDAGE.

IT is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends
of humanity, that, in prosecuting the design of our as-
sociation, our endeavours have proved successful, far
beyond our most sanguine expectations.

Encouraged by this success, and by the daily pro-
gress of that luminous and benign spirit of liberty,
which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and hum-
bly hoping for the continuance of the divine blessing
on our labors, we have ventured to make an important
addition to our original plan, and do therefore earnestly
solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel
the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or
relish the exalted pleasure of beneficence.

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human
nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with
solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious

evils.

The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a
brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common
standard of the human species. The galling chains,
that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual facul-
ties, and impair the social affections of his heart Ac
customed to move like a mere machine by the will
of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not
power of choice; and reason and conscience have
Me influence over his conduct, because he i
governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and
Mess; Jerhaps worn out by extreme labor, age,
and disease.

516 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove
a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to society.

Attention to emancipated black people, it is there-
fore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national
police; but, as far as we contribute to promote this
emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a seri-
ous duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to
discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities.

To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have
been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoy-
ment of civil liberty, to promote in them habits of in-
dustry, to furnish them with employments suited to
their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and
to procure their children an education calculated for
their future situation in life ; these are the great out-
lines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted,
and which we conceive will essentially promote the
public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto
too much neglected fellow-creatures.

A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execu-
tion without considerable pecuniary resources, beyond
the present ordinary funds of the Society. We hope
much from the generosity of enlightened and benevo-
lent freemen, and will gratefully receive any donations
or subscriptions for this purpose, which may be made
to our treasurer, James Starr, or to James Pemberton,
chairman of our committee of correspondence.
Signed, by order of the Society,

B. FRANKLIN, President.

Philadelphia, 9th of November, 1789.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 517

ON THE SLAVE-TRADE.

Dr. Franklin's name, as President of the Abolition Society, was
signed to the memorial presented to the House of Representatives
of the United States, on the 12th of February, 1789, praying them
to exert the full extent of power vested in them by the Constitution,
in discouraging the traffic of the human species. This was his
last public act. In the debates to which this memorial gave rise,
several attempts were made to justify the trade. In the Federal
Gazette of March 25th, 1790, there appeared an essay, signed
HISTORICUS, written by Dr. Franklin, in which he communicated
a Speech, said to have been delivered in the Divan of Algiers, in
1687, in opposition to the prayer of the petition of a sect called
Erika, or Purists, for the abolition of piracy and slavery. This
pretended African speech was an excellent parody of one deliv-
ered by Mr. Jackson, of Georgia. All the arguments, urged in
favor of negro slavery, are applied with equal force to justify the
plundering and enslaving of Europeans. It affords, at the same
time, a demonstration of the futility of the arguments in defence
of the slave-trade, and of the strength of mind and ingenuity of
the author, at his advanced period of life. It furnishes, too, a no
less convincing proof of his power of imitating the style of other
times and nations, than his celebrated Parable against Persecution.
And as the latter led many persons to search the Scriptures with
a view to find it, so the former caused many persons to search
the book-stores and libraries for the work from which it was said
to be extracted. — DR. STUBER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FEDERAL GAZETTE.

March 23d, 1790. *

SIR,

Reading last night in your excellent paper
speech of Mr. Jackson in Congress against their med-
dling with the affair of slavery, or attempting to mend

* This paper is dated only twenty-four days before the author's death,
which happened on the 17th of April following. - EDITOR.
VOL. II. RR

518 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

the condition of the slaves, it put me hi mind of a
similar one made about one hundred years since by
Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, a member of the Divan of Al-
giers, which may be seen in Martin's Account of his
Consulship, anno 1687. It was against granting the
petition of the sect called Erika, or Purists, who prayed
for the abolition of piracy and slavery as being unjust.
Mr. Jackson does not quote it ; perhaps he has not seen
it. If, therefore, some of its reasonings are to be
found in his eloquent speech, it may only show that
men's interests and intellects operate and are operated
on with surprising similarity in all countries and climates,
whenever they are under similar circumstances. The
African's speech, as translated, is as follows.

" Mlah Bismillah, &fc. God is great, and Mahomet is
his Prophet.

"Have these Erika considered the consequences
of granting their petition? If we cease our cruises
against the Christians, how shall we be furnished with
the commodities their countries produce, and which
are so necessary for us ? If we forbear to make slaves
of their people, who in this hot climate are to cultivate
our lands ? Who are to perform the common labors
of our city, and hi our families ? Must we not then
be our own slaves? And is there not more compas-
sion and more favor due to us as Mussulmen, than
to these Christian dogs ? We have now above fifty
thousand slaves in and near Algiers. This number, if
not kept up by fresh supplies, will soon diminish, and
be gradually annihilated. If we then cease taking and
plundering the infidel ships, and making slaves of the
seamen and passengers, our lands will become of no
value for want of cultivation; the rents of houses in
the city will sink one half; and the revenue of gov-

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 519

eminent arising from its share of prizes be totally de-
stroyed! And for what? To gratify the whims of a
whimsical sect, who would have us, not only forbear
making more slaves, but even manumit those we have.

" But who is to indemnify their masters for the loss ?
Will the state do it? Is our treasury sufficient? Will
the Erika do it? Can they do it? Or would they,
to do what they think justice to the slaves, do a greater
injustice to the owners? And if we set our slaves
free, what is to be done with them? Few of them
will return to their countries ; they know too well the
greater hardships they must there be subject to ; they
will not embrace our holy religion ; they will not adopt
our manners ; our people will not pollute themselves by
intermarrying with them. Must we maintain them as
beggars in our streets, or suffer our properties to be the
prey of their pillage ? For men accustomed to slavery
will not work for a livelihood when not compelled.
And what is there so pitiable in their present condi-
tion ? Were they not slaves in their own countries ?

"Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian
states governed by despots, who hold all their sub-
jects in slavery, without exception? Even England
treats its sailors as slaves ; for they are, whenever the
government pleases, seized, and confined in ships of
war, condemned not only to work, but to fight, for
small wages, or a mere subsistence, not better than
our slaves are allowed by us. Is their condition then
made worse by their falling into our hands? No;
they have only exchanged one slavery for another, and
I may say a better; for here they are brought into a
land where the sun of Islamism gives forth its light,
and shines in full splendor, and they have an oppor
tunity of making themselves acquainted with the true
doctrine, and thereby saving their immortal souls.
Those who remain at home have not that happiness.

520 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Sending the slaves home then would be sending them
out of light into darkness.

" I repeat the question, What is to be done with them ?
I have heard it suggested, that they may be planted
in the wilderness, where there is plenty of land for
them to subsist on, and where they may flourish as
a free state ; but they are, I doubt, too little disposed
to labor without compulsion, as well as too ignorant
to establish a good government, and the wild Arabs
would soon molest and destroy or again enslave them.
While serving us, we take care to provide them with
every thing, and they are treated with humanity. The
laborers in their own country are, as I am well in-
formed, worse fed, lodged, and clothed. The condition
of most of them is therefore already mended, and re-
quires no further improvement. Here their lives are
in safety. They are not liable to be impressed for
soldiers, and forced to cut one another's Christian
throats, as in the wars of their own countries. If
some of the religious mad bigots, who now tease us
with their silly petitions, have in a fit of blind zeal
freed their slaves, it was not generosity, it was not
humanity, that moved them to the action ; it was from
the conscious burthen of a load of sins, and a hope,
from the supposed merits of so good a work, to be
excused from damnation.

"How grossly are they mistaken to suppose slavery
to be disallowed by the Alcoran! Are not the two
precepts, to quote no more, ' Masters, treat your slaves
with kindness; Slaves, serve your masters with cheer-
fulness and fidelity,' clear proofs to the contrary?
Nor can the plundering of infidels be in that sacred
book forbidden, since it is well known from it, that
God has given the world, and all that it contains, to
his faithful Mussulmen, who are to enjoy it of right
as fast as they conquer it. Let us then hear no more

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 521

of this detestable proposition, the manumission of Chris-
tian slaves, the adoption of which would, by depre-
ciating our lands and houses, and thereby depriving
so many good citizens of their properties, create uni-
versal discontent, and provoke insurrections, to the en-
dangering of government and producing general con-
fusion. I have therefore no doubt, but this wise coun-
cil will prefer the comfort and happiness of a whole
nation of true believers to the whim of a few Erika,
and dismiss their petition."

The result was, as Martin tells us, that the Divan
came to this resolution ; " The doctrine, that plundering
and enslaving the Christians is unjust, is at best pro-
blematical; but that it is the interest of this state to
continue the practice, is clear; therefore let the peti-
tion be rejected."

And it was rejected accordingly.

And since like motives are apt to produce in the
minds of men like opinions and resolutions, may we
not, Mr. Brown, venture to predict, from this account,
that the petitions to the Parliament of England for
abolishing the slave-trade, to say nothing of other
legislatures, and the debates upon them, will have a
similar conclusion? I am, Sir, your constant reader
and humble servant, HISTORIC^.

VOL. II.

66

SUPPLEMENT

THE articles contained in the following SUPPLEMENT have never
before appeared in any edition of the author's writings. Some of
them were originally printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette. They
have all been recently transcribed from a manuscript book in Dr.
Franklin's handwriting, now in the possession of Mr. William
Duane, Jr. of Philadelphia, and published by Mr. T. W. White of
Richmond, in the Southern Literary Messenger. With Mr. Duane's
permission they are inserted in the present work. — EDITOR.

SUPPLEMENT.

A LECTURE

ON THE

PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD

WHEN I consider my own weakness and the dis-
cerning judgment of those who are to be my audience,
I cannot help blaming myself considerably for this rash
undertaking of mine, being a thing I am altogether un-
practised in, and very much unqualified for ; but I am
especially discouraged when I reflect, that you are all
my intimate pot-companions, who have heard me say a
thousand silly things in conversation, and therefore have
not that laudable partiality and veneration for whatever
I shall deliver, that good people commonly have foi
their spiritual guides ; that you have no reverence for
my habit, nor for the sanctity of my countenance ; thai
you do not believe me inspired or divinely assisted, and
therefore will think yourselves at liberty to assert or
dissert, approve or disapprove of any thing I advance,
canvassing and sifting it, as the private opinion of one
of your acquaintance. These are great disadvantages
and discouragements ; but I am entered and must pro-
ceed, humbly requesting your patience and attention.
I propose, at this time, to discourse on the subject of
our last conversation, the Providence of God in the

526 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

government of the world. It might be judged an af-
front to your understandings, should I go about to prove
this first principle, the existence of a Deity, and that he
is the Creator of the universe ; for that would suppose
you ignorant of what all mankind in all ages have
agreed in. I shall therefore proceed to observe, that
he must be a being of infinite wisdom, as appears in his
admirable order and disposition of things ; whether we
consider the heavenly bodies, the stars and planets, and
their wonderful regular motions; or this earth, com-
pounded of such an excellent mixture of all the ele-
ments ; or the admirable structure of animate bodies of
such infinite variety, and yet every one adapted to its
nature and the way of life it is to be placed in, whether
on earth, in the air, or in the water, and so exactly that
the highest and most exquisite human reason cannot
find a fault, and say this would have been better so, or
in such a manner ; which whoever considers attentively
and thoroughly will be astonished and swallowed up in
admiration.

That the Deity is a being of great goodness, appears
in his giving life to so many creatures, each of which
acknowledges it a benefit, by its unwillingness to leave
it; in his providing plentiful sustenance for them all,
and making those things that are most useful, most
common and easy to be had ; such as water, necessary
for almost every creature to drink ; air, without which
few could subsist; the inexpressible benefits of light and
sunshine to almost all animals in general ; and to men,
the most useful vegetables, such as corn, the most useful
of metals, as iron, &c., the most useful animals, as
horses, oxen, and sheep, he has made easiest to raise
or procure in quantity or numbers ; each of which
particulars, if considered seriously and carefully, would
fill us with the highest love and affection.

SUPPLEMENT. 527

That he is a being of infinite power appears in his
being able to form and compound such vast masses of
matter, as this earth, and the sun, and innumerable stars
and planets, and give them such prodigious motion, and
yet so to govern them in their greatest velocity, as that
they shall not fly out of their appointed bounds, nor
dash one against another for their mutual destruction.
But it is easy to conceive his power, when we are con-
vinced of his infinite knowledge and wisdom. For, if
weak and foolish creatures as we are, by knowing the
nature of a few things, can produce such wonderful
effects ; such as, for instance, by knowing the nature
only of nitre and sea- salt mixed we can make a water,
which will dissolve the hardest iron, and by adding one
ingredient more can make another water, which will dis-
solve gold and make the most solid bodies fluid; and by
knowing the nature of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal,
with those mean ingredients mixed we can shake the air
in the most terrible manner, destroy ships, houses, and
men at a distance, and in an instant overthrow cities,
and rend rocks into a thousand pieces, and level the
highest mountains; what power must he possess, who
not only knows the nature of every thing in the uni-
verse, but can make things of new natures with the
greatest ease and at his pleasure!
' Agreeing, then, that the world was at first made by £
Being of infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, which
Bern*- we call God, the state of things existing at this
time must be in one of these fcur following manners,

namely ;

1 Either he unchangeably decreed and appointe
everV thing that comes to pass, and left nothing to the
course of nature, nor allowed any creature free agency;

2 Without decreeing any thing, he left all to general
nature and the events of free agency in his creatu es,
which he never alters or interrupts ; or,

528 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

3. He decreed some things unchangeably, and left
others to general nature and the events of free agency,
which also he never alters or interrupts; or,

4. He sometimes interferes by his particular provi-
dence, and sets aside the effects which would otherwise
have been produced by any of the above causes.

I shall endeavour to show the first three suppositions
to be inconsistent with the common light of reason, and
that the fourth is most agreeable to it, and therefore
most probably true.

In the first place ; if you say he has in the begin-
ning unchangeably decreed all things and left nothing
to nature or free agency, these strange conclusions will
necessarily follow. 1. That he is now no more a God.
It is true, indeed, before he made such unchangeable
decree, he was a being of power almighty ; but now,
having determined every thing, he has divested himself
of all further power, he has done and has no more to
do, he has tied up his hands and has now no greater
power than an idol of wood or stone ; nor can there be
any more reason for praying to him or worshipping of
him than of such an idol, for the worshippers can never
be better for such worship. Then, 2. He has decreed
some things contrary to the very notion of a wise and
good being ; such as, that some of his creatures or
children shall do all manner of injury to others, and
bring every kind of evil upon them without cause ; that
some of them shall even blaspheme him, their Creator,
in the most horrible manner ; and, which is still more
highly absurd, he has decreed, that the greatest part
of mankind shall in all ages put up their earnest
prayers to him, both in private and publicly in great
assemblies, when all the while he had so determined
their fate, that he could not possibly grant them any
benefits on that account, nor could such prayers be in

SUPPLEMENT. 529

any way available. Why then should he ordain them
to make such prayers ? It cannot be imagined, that
they are of any service to him. Surely it is not more
difficult to believe the world was made by a god of
wood or stone, than that the God who made the world
should be such a God as this.

In the second place ; if you say he has decreed
nothing, but left all things to general nature and the
events of free agency, which he never alters or inter-
rupts, then these conclusions will follow ; he must either
utterly hide himself from the works of his own hands,
and take no notice at all of their proceedings, natural
or moral, or he must be, as undoubtedly he is, a spec-
tator of every thing, for there can be no reason or
ground to suppose the first. I say there can be no
reason to imagine he would make so glorious a universe
merely to abandon it. In this case, imagine the Deity
looking on and beholding the ways of his creatures.
Some heroes in virtue he sees are incessantly endeav-
ouring the good of others ; they labor through vast diffi-
culties, they suffer incredible hardships and miseries, to
accomplish this end, in hopes to please a good God,
and attain his favors, which they earnestly pray for.
What answer can he make then, within himself, but
this? Take the reward chance may give you; I do not
intermeddle in these affairs. He sees others continu-
ally doing all manner of evil, and bringing by their ac-
tions misery and destruction among mankind. What
can he say here but this? If chance rewards you, 1
shall not punish you; lam not to be concerned. He
sees the just, the innocent, and the beneficent in the
hands of the wicked and violent oppressor, and when
the good are at the brink of destruction, they pray to
him, Thou, 0 God, art mighty and powerful to save;
help us we beseech thee! He answers, / cannot help

VOL. n. 67 ss

530 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

you ; it is none of my business, nor do I at all regard
these things. How is it possible to believe a wise and
an infinitely good being can be delighted in this cir-
cumstance, and be utterly unconcerned wrhat becomes
of the beings and things he has created ? For thus we
must believe him idle and inactive, and that his glorious
attributes of power, wisdom, and goodness are no more
to be made use of.

In the third place ; if you say he has decreed some
things, and left others to the events of nature and free
agency, which he never alters or interrupts ; still you
un- God him, if I may be allowed the expression ; he
has nothing to do ; he can cause us neither good nor
harm ; he is no more to be regarded than a lifeless
image, than Dagon or Baal, or Bell and the Dragon ;
and, as in both the other suppositions foregoing, that
being, which from its power is most able to act, from
its wisdom knows best how to act, and from its good-
ness would always certainly act best, is, in this opinion,
supposed to become the most inactive of all beings,
and remain everlastingly idle ; an absurdity, which, when
considered or but barely seen, cannot be swallowed
without doing the greatest violence to common reason
and all the faculties of the understanding.

We are then necessarily driven to the fourth suppo-
sition, that the Deity sometimes interferes by his par-
ticular Providence, and sets aside the events, which
would otherwise have been produced in the course of
nature, or by the free agency of men ; and this is per-
fectly agreeable with what we know of his attributes
and perfections. But, as some may doubt wrhether it
is possible there should be such a thing as free agency
in creatures, I shall just offer one short argument on
that account, and proceed to show how the duty of
religion necessarily follows the belief of a Providence.

SUPPLEMENT. 531

You acknowledge, that God is infinitely powerful, wise,
and good, and also a free agent, and you will not deny
that he has communicated to us part of his wisdom,
power, and goodness ; that is, he has made us, in some
degree, wise, potent, and good. And is it, then, im-
possible for him to communicate any part of his free-
dom, and make us also in some degree free ? Is not
even his infinite power sufficient for this ? I should be
glad to hear what reason any man can give for thinking
in that manner. It is sufficient for me to show it is not
impossible, and no man, I think, can show it is improb-
able. Much more might be offered to demonstrate
clearly, that men are in some degree free agents and
accountable for their actions ; however, this I may pos-
sibly reserve for another separate discourse hereafter,
if I find occasion.

Lastly ; if God does not sometimes interfere by his
Providence, it is either because he cannot, or because
he will not. Which of these positions will you choose ?
There is a righteous nation grievously oppressed by a
cruel tyrant ; they earnestly entreat God to deliver them.
If you say he cannot, you deny his infinite power,
which you at first acknowledged. If you say he will
not, you must directly deny his infinite goodness. You
are of necessity obliged to allow, that it is highly rea-
sonable to believe a Providence, because it is highly
absurd to believe otherwise.

Now if it is unreasonable to suppose it out of
power of the Deity to help and favor us particularly,
or that we are out of his hearing and notice, or that
aood actions do not procure more of his favor than i
ones ; then I conclude, that, believing a Providence, we
have the foundation of all true religion; for
love and revere that Deity for his goodness, and tl
mn for his benefits ; we should adore him for his wis-

532 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

dom, fear him for his power, and pray to him for his
favor and protection. And this religion will be a pow-
erful regulator of our actions, give us peace and tran-
quillity within our own minds, and render us benevo-
lent, useful, and beneficial to others.

LETTER FROM ANTHONY AFTERWIT.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, JULY 10TH, 1732.

MR. GAZETTEER,

I am an honest tradesman, who never meant harm to
anybody. My affairs went on smoothly while a bache-
lor ; but of late I have met with some difficulties, of
which I take the freedom to give you an account.

About the time I first addressed my present spouse,
her father gave out in speeches, that if she married a
man he liked, he would give with her two hundred
pounds in cash on the day of marriage. He never said
so much to me, it is true ; but he always received me
very kindly at his house, and openly countenanced my
courtship. I formed several fine schemes what to do
with this same two hundred pounds, and in some
measure neglected my business on that account ; but
unluckily it came to pass, that, when the old gentleman
saw I was pretty well engaged, and that the match was
too far gone to be easily broke off, he, without any rea-
son given, grew very angry, forbid me the house, and
told his daughter, that, if she married me, he would not
give her a farthing. However, (as he thought) we
were not to be disappointed in that manner, but, having
stole a wedding, I took her home to my house, where
we were not in quite so poor a condition as the couple

SUPPLEMENT. 533

described in the Scotch song, who had

"Neither pot nor pan,
But four bare legs together,"

for I had a house tolerably furnished for a poor man
before. No thanks to Dad, who, I understand, was
very much pleased with his politic management; and
I have since learned, that there are other old curmud-
geons (so called) besides him, who have this trick to
marry their daughters, and yet keep what they might
well spare, till they can keep it no longer. But this by
way of digression; a word to the wise is enough.

I soon saw, that with care and industry we might
live tolerably easy and in credit with our neighbours; but
my wife had a strong inclination to be a gentlewoman.
In consequence of this, my old-fashioned looking-glass
was one day broke, as she said, no one could tell which
way. However, since we could not be without a glass
in the room, "My dear," saith she, "we may as well
buy a large fashionable one, that Mr. Such-a-one has
to sell. It will cost but little more than a common glass,
and will look much handsomer and more creditable."
Accordingly, the glass was bought and hung against the
wall; but in a week's time I was made sensible, by little
and little, that the table was by no means suitable to
such a glass; and, a more proper table being procured,
some time after, my spouse, who was an excellent
triver, informed me where we might have very
some chairs in the tray; and thus by degrees I
all my old furniture stowed up in the garret, and
thing below altered for the better.

Had we stopped here, it might have done well
enough. But my wife being entertained with tea by
he good women "she visited, we could do no fe
the L when they visited us ; and so we i^
with all its appurtenances of china and silver.

ss1

534 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

my spouse unfortunately overworked herself in washing
the house, so that we could do no longer without a
maid. Besides this, it happened frequently, that when
I came home at one, the dinner was but just put in
the pot, and my dear thought really it had been but
eleven. At other times, when I came at the same hour,
she wondered I would stay so long, for dinner was ready
about one, and had waited for me these two hours.
These irregularities occasioned by mistaking the time,
convinced me, that it was absolutely necessary to buy
a clock, which my spouse observed was a great orna-
ment to the room. And lastly, to my grief, she was
troubled with some ailment or other, and nothing did
her so much good as riding, and these hackney horses
were such wretched ugly creatures that — I bought a
very fine pacing mare, which cost twenty pounds ; and
hereabouts affairs have stood for about a twelvemonth
past.

I could see all along, that this did not at all suit with
my circumstances, but had not resolution enough to help
it, till lately, receiving a very severe dun, which men-
tioned the next court, I began in earnest to project re-
lief. Last Monday, my dear went over the river to see
a relation and stay a fortnight, because she could not
bear the heat of the town air. In the interim I have
taken my turn to make alterations ; namely, I have
turned away the maid, bag and baggage, (for what
should we do with a maid, who, beside our boy, have
none but ourselves?) I have sold the pacing mare,
and bought a good milch cow with three pounds of
the money. I have disposed of the table, and put a
good spinning-wheel in its place, which methinks looks
very pretty ; nine empty canisters I have stuffed with
flax, and with some of the money of the tea-furniture I
have bought a set of knitting-needles, for, to tell you
the truth, / begin to want stockings. The fine clock I

SUPPLEMENT. 535

have transformed into an hour-glass, by which I have
gained a good round sum, and one of the pieces of the
old looking-glass, squared and framed, supplies the
place of the great one, which I have conveyed into a
closet, where it may possibly remain some years. In
short, the face of things is quite changed, and methinks
you would smile to see my hour-glass hanging in the
place of the clock. What a great ornament it is to the
room ! I have paid my debts and find money in my
pocket. I expect my dear home next Friday, and, as
your paper is taken at the house where she /s, I hope
the reading of this will prepare her mind for the above
surprising revolutions. If she can conform herself to
this new manner of living, we shall be the haziest cou-
ple perhaps in the province, and by the blessing of God
may soon be in thriving circumstances. I have re-
served the great glass, because I know her heart is set
upon it; I will allow her, when she comes in, to be taken
suddenly ill with the head-ache, the stomach-ache, fainting
fits, or whatever other disorder she may think more
proper, and she may retire to bed as soon as she
pleases. But, if I should not find her in perfect health,
both of body and mind, the next morning, away goes
the aforesaid great glass, with several other trinkets I
have no occasion for, to the vendue, that very day ;
which is the irrevocable resolution

Of, Sir, her loving husband, and

Your very humble servant,

AJVTHONY AFTERWIT.

P. S. I would be glad to know how you approve
my conduct.

Answer. I don't love to concern myself in affairs
between man and wife.

536 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

LETTER FROM CELIA SINGLE.

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, Jui/Y 24TH, 1732.

MR. GAZETTEER,

I must needs tell you, that some of the things you
print do more harm than good ; particularly I think so
of the tradesman's letter, which was in one of your late
papers, which disobliged many of our sex, and has
broken the peace of several families, by causing differ-
ence between men and their wives. I shall give you
one instance, of which I was an eye and ear witness.

Happening last Wednesday morning to be at Mrs.
W.'s, wh|n her husband returned from market, among
other things he showed her some balls of thread, which
he had bought. " My dear," says he, " I like mightily
those stockings, which I yesterday saw neighbour Af-
terwit knitting for her husband, of thread of her own
spinning. I should be glad to have some such stock-
ings myself. I understand that your maid Mary is a
very good knitter, and, seeing this thread in market, I
have bought it, that the girl may make a pair or two
for me." Mrs. W. was just then at the glass, dressing
her head, and turning about with the pins in her mouth,
" Lord, child," says she, " are you crazy ? What time
has Mary to knit ? Who must do the work, I wonder,
if you set her to knitting ? " " Perhaps, my dear," says
ae, " you have a mind to knit them yourself. I remem-
ber, when I courted you, I once heard you say, that
you had learned to knit of your mother." "I knit
stockings for you ! " says she ; " not I, truly ! There
are poor women enough in town, who can knit ; if you
please, you may employ them." " Well, but my dear,"
says he, "you know a penny saved is a penny got,
and there is neither sin nor shame in knitting a pair of
stockings ; why should you have such a mighty aver-

SUPPLEMENT. 537

sion to it ? And what signifies talking of poor women?
You know we are not people of quality. We have no
income to maintain us but arises from my labor and in-
dustry. Methinks you should not be at all displeased,
when you have an opportunity of getting something as
well as myself."

"I wonder," says she, "you can propose such a thing
to me. Did not you always tell me you would maintain
me like a gentlewoman ? If I had married the Captain,
I am sure he would have scorned to mention knitting
of stockings." "Prythee," says he, a little nettled,
" what do you tell me of your Captain ? If you could
have had him, I suppose you would, or perhaps you did
not like him very well. If I did promise to maintain
you as a gentlewoman, methinks it is time *enough for
that, when you know how to behave yourself like one.
How long, do you think, I can maintain you at your
present rate of living ? " " Pray," says she, somewhat
fiercely, and dashing the puff into the powder-box,
" don't use me in this manner, for I '11 assure you I won't
bear it. This is the fruit of your poison newspapers ;
there shall no more come here, I promise you." "Bless
us," says he, "what an unaccountable thing is this?
Must a tradesman's daughter, and the wife of a trades-
man, necessarily be a lady ? In short, I tell you, if I
am forced to work for a living, and you are too good
to do the like, there 's the door, go and live upon your
estate. And, as I never had or could expect any thing
with you, I don't desire to be troubled with you."

What answer she made, I cannot tell ; for, knowing
that man and wife are apt to quarrel more violently
when before strangers, than when by themselves, I
got up and went out hastily. But I understand from
Mary, who came to me of an errand in the evening,
that they dined together very peaceably and lovingly,

VOL. II. 68

538 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

the balls of thread which had caused the disturbance
being thrown into the kitchen fire, which I was very
glad to hear.

I have several times in your paper seen reflections
upon us women for idleness and extravagance, but I
do not remember to have once seen such animadver-
sions upon the men. If we were disposed to be cen-
sorious, we could furnish you with instances enough.
I might mention Mr. Billiard, who loses more than he
earns at the green table, and would have been in jail
long since, had it not been for his industrious wife.
Mr. Hustlecap, who, every market-day at least, and
often all day long, leaves his business for the rattling
of half-pei\ce, in a certain alley ; or Mr. Finikin, who
has seven different suits of fine clothes, and wears a
change every day, while his wife and children sit at
home half naked; Mr. Crownhim, always dreaming
over the chequer-board, and who cares not how the
world goes with his family, so he does but get the
game ; Mr. Totherpot, the tavern-haunter ; Mr. Bookish,
the everlasting reader ; Mr. Tweedledum, and sever-
al others, who are mighty diligent at any thing besides
their proper business. I say, if I were disposed to be
censorious, I might mention all these and more, but I
hate to be thought a scandalizer of my neighbours,
and therefore forbear ; and for your part, I would ad-
vise you for the future to entertain your readers with
something else, besides people's reflections upon one
another ; for remember, that there are holes enough to
be picked in your coat, as well as others, and those
that are affronted by the satire that you may publish,
will not consider so much who wrote as who printed,
and treat you accordingly. Take not this freedom

amiss from

Your friend and reader,

CELIA SINGLE.

SUPPLEMENT. 539

ON SCANDAL.

MR. GAZETTEER,

I was highly pleased with your last week's paper
upon SCANDAL, as the uncommon doctrine therein
preached is agreeable both to my principles and prac-
tice, and as it was published very seasonably to re-
prove the impertinence of a writer hi the foregoing
Thursday's Mercury, who, at the conclusion of one of
his silly paragraphs, laments forsooth, that the fair sex
are so peculiarly guilty of this enormous crime. Every
blockhead, ancient and modern, that could handle a
pen, has, I think, taken upon him to cant in the same
senseless strain. If to scandalize be really a crime,
what do these puppies mean ? They describe it, they
dress it up in the most odious, frightful, and detestable
colors, they represent it as the worst of crimes, and
then roundly and charitably charge the whole race of
womankind with it. Are not they then guilty of what
they condemn, at the same time that they condemn
it 1 If they accuse us of any other crime, they must
necessarily scandalize while they do it ; but to scan-
dalize us with being guilty of scandal, is in itself an
egregious absurdity, and can proceed from nothing
but the most consummate impudence in conjunction
with the most profound stupidity.

This supposing, as they do, that to scandalize is a
crime, you have convinced all reasonable people is an
opinion absolutely erroneous. Let us leave, then, these
select mock-moralists, while I entertain you with some
account of my life and manners.

I am a young girl of about thirty-five, and live at
present with my mother. I have no care upon my
head of getting a living, and therefore find it my duty,

540 FRANKLIN'S WRITINJS.

as well as inclination, to exercise my talent at censure,
for the good of my country-folks. There was, I am
told, a certain generous emperor, who, if a day had
passed over his head in which he had conferred no
benefit on any man, used to say to his friends, in Latin,
Diem perdidi, that is, it seems, / have lost a day. I
believe I should make use of the same expression, if it
were possible for a day to pass in which I had not, or
missed, an opportunity to scandalize somebody ; but,
thanks be praised, no such misfortune has befell me
these dozen years.

Yet, whatever good I may do, I cannot pretend that
I at first entered into the practice of this virtue from a
principle of public spirit ; for I remember, that, when a
child, I had a violent inclination to be ever talking in my
own praise ; and being continually told that it was ill
manners, and once severely whipped for it, the confined
stream formed for itself a new channel, and I began to
speak for the future in the dispraise of others. This
I found more agreeable to company, and almost as
much so to myself; for what great difference can there
be between putting yourself up, or putting your neigh-
bour down ? Scandal, like other virtues, is in part its
own reward, as it gives us the satisfaction of making
ourselves appear better than others, or others no better
than ourselves.

My mother, good woman, and I, have heretofore dif-
fered upon this account. She argued, that scandal
spoilt all good conversation ; and I insisted, that without
it there would be no such thing. Our disputes once
rose so high, that we parted tea-tables, and I concluded
to entertain my acquaintance in the kitchen. The first
day of this separation we both drank tea at the same
time, but she with her visitors in the parlour. She would
not hear of the least objection to any one's character,

SUPPLEMENT. 541

but began a new sort of discourse in some such queer
philosophical manner as this ; "I am mightily pleased
sometimes," says she, "when I observe and consider,
that the world is not so bad as people out of humor
imagine it to be. There is something amiable, some
good quality or other, in every body. If we were
only to speak of people, that are least respected, there
is such a one is very dutiful to her father, and methinks
has a fine set of teeth ; such a one is very respectful
to her husband ; such a one is very kind to her poor
neighbours, and besides has a very handsome shape;
such a one is always ready to serve a friend, and, in
my opinion, there is not a woman in town, that has
a more agreeable air or gait." This fine kind of talk,
which lasted near half an hour, she concluded by say-
ins "I do not doubt but every one of you has mac
the' like observations, and I should be glad to have the
conversation continued upon this subject."
this juncture I peeped in at the door, and never
life before saw" such a set of simple vacant conn*
lances They looked somehow neither glad nor so
ry nor angry nor pleased, nor indifferent nor attentive ;
but Excuse the simile) like so many images of rye-
doU Tinthe kitchen, had already begun a ridicu-
lous story of Mr. — -'s intrigue with his maid and

so merry about S e , wu gentlewoman found

Shortlybyath1rd,t1nat astth^old ^ ^

herself quite ,*»*•£ ^ hersdf and finished
Was * *«

VOL. II.

542 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

By industry and application, I have made myself the
centre of all the scandal in the province. There is little
stirring, but I hear of it. I began the world with this
maxim, that no trade can subsist without returns ; and,
accordingly, whenever I received a good story, I en-
deavoured to give two or a better in the room of it.
My punctuality in this way of dealing gave such en-
couragement, that it has procured me an incredible deal
of business, which without diligence and good method
it would be impossible for me to go through. For, be-
sides the stock of defamation thus naturally flowing in
upon me, I practise an art, by which I can pump scan-
dal out of people that are the least inclined that way.
Shall I discover my secret ? Yes ; to let it die with
me would be inhuman. If I have never heard ill of
some person, I always impute it to defective intelli-
gence ; for there are none without their faults, no, not
one. If she be a woman, I take the first opportunity to
let all her acquaintance know I have heard, that one of
the handsomest or best men in town has said something
in praise either of her beauty, her wit, her virtue, or
her good management. If you know any thing of hu-
man nature, you perceive that this naturally introduces a
conversation turning upon all her failings, past, present,
and to come. To the same purpose, and with the
same success, I cause every man of reputation to be
praised before his competitors in love, business, or es-
teem, on account of any particular qualification. Near
the times of election, if I find it necessary, I commend
every candidate before some of the opposite party, lis-
tening attentively to what is said of him in answer. But
commendations in this latter case are not always neces-
sary, and should be used judiciously. Of late years, I
needed only observe what they said of one another
freely ; and having, for the help of memory, taken ac-

SUPPLEMENT 543

«

count of all informations and accusations received, who-
ever peruses my writings after my death, may happen
to think, that during a certain time the people of Penn-
sylvania chose into all their offices of honor and trust
the veriest knaves, fools, and rascals in the whole prov-
ince. The time of election used to be a busy time
with me ; but this year, with concern I speak it, people
are grown so good-natured, so intent upon mutual
feasting and friendly entertainment, that I see no pros-
pect of much employment from that quarter.

I mentioned above, that without good method I could
not go through my business. In my father's lifetime
I had some instruction in accounts, which I now apply
with advantage to my own affairs. I keep a regular
set of books, and can tell, at an hour's warning, how it
stands between me and the world. In my Daybook I
enter every article of defamation as it is transacted;
for scandals received in I give credit, and when I pay
them out again I make the persons to whom they re-
spectively relate debtor. In my Journal, I add to each
story, by way of improvement, such probable circum-
stances as I think it will bear ; and in my Leger the
whole is regularly posted.

I suppose the reader already condemns me in his
heart for this particular of adding circumstances ; but I
justify this part of my practice thus. It is a principle
with me, that none ought to have a greater share of
reputation, than they really deserve ; if they have, it
is an imposition upon the public. I know it is every
one's interest, and therefore believe they endeavour, to
conceal all their vices and follies; and I hold that those
people are extraordinary foolish or careless, who suffer
one fourth of their failings to come to public knowledge.
Takin^ then the common prudence and imprudence of
mankind in a lump, I suppose none suffer above one

544 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

I

fifth to be discovered ; therefore, when I hear of any
person's misdoing, I think I keep within bounds, if in
relating it I only make it three times worse than it is ;
and I reserve to myself the privilege of charging them
with one fault in four, which for aught I know they
may be entirely innocent of. You see, there are but
few so careful of doing justice as myself. What rea-
son then have mankind to complain of scandal 1 In a
general way the worst that is said of us is only half
what might be said, if all our faults were seen.

But, alas ! two great evils have lately befallen me at
the same time ; an extreme cold, that I can scarce
speak, and a most terrible tooth-ache, that I dare hardly
open my mouth. For some days past, I have received
ten stories for one I have paid ; and I am not able to
balance my accounts without your assistance. I have
long thought, that if you would make your paper a
vehicle of scandal, you would double the number of
your subscribers. I send you herewith accounts of
four knavish tricks, two * * *, five * * * * *,
three drubbed wives, and four henpecked husbands, all
within this fortnight; which you may, as articles of
news, deliver to the public, and, if my tooth-ache con-
tinues, I shall send you more, being in the mean time
your constant reader,

ALICE ADDER-TONGUE.

I thank my correspondent, Mrs. Addertongue, for
her good will, but desire to be excused inserting the
articles of news she has sent me, such things being in
reality no news at all.

SUPPLEMENT. 545

A CASE OF CASUISTRY.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE GAZETTE.

ACCORDING to the request of your correspondent,
T. P., I send you my thoughts on the following case
by him proposed, viz.

A man bargains for the keeping of his horse six
months, whilst he is making a voyage to Barbadoes.
The horse strays or is stolen soon after the keeper has
him in possession. When the owner demands the
value of his horse in money, may not the other as
justly demand so much deducted as the keeping of
the horse six months amounts to?

It does not appear that they had any dispute about
the value of the horse ; whence we may conclude there
was no reason for such dispute, but it was well known
how much he cost, and that he could not honestly have
been sold again for more. But the value of the horse
is not expressed in the case, nor the sum agreed for
keeping him six months ; wherefore, in order to our
more clear apprehension of the thing, let ten pounds
represent the horse's value, and three pounds the sum
agreed for his keeping.

Now the sole foundation, on which the keeper can
found his demand of a deduction for keeping a horse
he did not keep, is this. " Your horse," he may say,
" which , I was to restore to you at the end of six
months, was worth ten pounds ; if I now give you ten
pounds, it is an equivalent for your horse, and equal to
returning the horse itself. Had I returned your horse
(value ten pounds), you would have paid me three
pounds for his keeping, and therefore would have re-
ceived in fact but seven pounds clear. You then suffer

VOL. u. 69 TT*

FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

no injury, if I now pay you seven pounds ; and con-
sequently you ought in reason to allow me the remain-
ing three pounds, according to our agreement."

But the owner of the horse may possibly insist upon
being paid the whole sum of ten pounds, without al-
lowing any deduction for his keeping after he was lost,
and that for these reasons.

1. It is always supposed, unless an express agree-
ment be made to the contrary, when horses are put out
to keep, that the keeper is at the risk of them ; una-
voidable accidents only excepted, wherein no care of
the keeper can be supposed sufficient to preserve them,
such as their being slain by lightening or the like.
This you yourself tacitly allow, when you offer to re-
store me the value of my horse. Were it otherwise,
people, having no security against a keeper's neglect
or mismanagement, would never put horses out to
keep.

2. Keepers, considering the risk they run, always
demand such a price for keeping horses, that, if they
were to follow the business twenty years, they may
have a living profit, though they now and then pay for
a horse they have lost ; and, if they were to be at no
risk, they might afford to keep horses for less than
they usually have. So that what a man pays for his
horse's keeping, more than the keeper could afford to
take if he ran no risk, is in the nature of a premium
for the insurance of his horse. If I then pay you for
the few days you kept my horse, you should restore
me his full value.

3. You acknowledge, that my horse eat of your hay
and oats but a few days. It is unjust then to charge
me for all the hay and oats, that he only might have
eat in the remainder of the six months, and which you
have now still good in your stable. If, as the proverb

SUPPLEMENT. 547

says, it is unreasonable to expect a horse should void
oats, which never eat any, it is certainly as unreason-
able to expect payment for those oats.

4. If men in such cases as this are to be paid for
keeping horses when they were not kept, then they
have a great opportunity of wronging the owners of
horses. For by privately selling my horse for his value
(ten pounds) soon after you had him in possession,
and returning me, at the expiration of the time, only
seven pounds, demanding three pounds as a deduction
agreed for his keeping, you get that three pounds clear
into your pocket, besides the use of my money six
months for nothing.

5. But, you say, the value of my horse being ten
pounds, if you deduct three for his keeping and re-
turn me seven, it is all I would in fact have received
had you returned my horse ; therefore, as I am no loser,
I ought to be satisfied. This argument, were there any
weight in it, might serve to justify a man in selling, as
above, as many of the horses he takes to keep as he
conveniently can, putting clear into his own pocket that
charge their owners must have been at for their keep-
ing ; for, this being no loss to the owners, he may say,
"Where no man is a loser, wrhy should not I be a
gainer ? " I need only answer to this, that I allow the
horse cost me but ten pounds, nor could I have sold
him for more, had I been disposed to part with him; but
this can be no reason why you should buy him of me
at that price, whether I will sell him or not. For it is
plain I valued him at thirteen pounds, otherwise I
should not have paid ten pounds for him, and agreed
to give y6u three pounds more for his keeping, till I
had occasion to use him. Thus, though you pay me
the whole ten pounds which he cost me, (deducting
only for his keeping those few days,) I am still a loser;

548 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS-

I lose the charge of those days' keeping ; I lose the
three pounds at which I valued him above what he
cost me, and I lose the advantage I might have made
of my money in six months, either by the interest, or
by joining it to my stock in trade in my voyage to Bar-
badoes.

6. Lastly, whenever a horse is put to keep, the
agreement naturally runs thus. The keeper says, "I
will feed your horse six months on good hay and oats,
if, at the end of that time, you will pay me three
pounds." The owner says, " If you will feed my horse
six months on good hay and oats, I will pay you three
pounds at the end of that time." Now we may plainly
see, the keeper's performance of his part of the agree-
ment must be antecedent to that of the owner ; and,
the agreement being wholly conditional, the owner's
part is not in force till the keeper has performed his.
You, then, not having fed my horse six months, as you
agreed to do, there lies no obligation on me to pay for
so much feeding.

Thus we have heard what can be said on both
sides. Upon the whole, I am of opinion, that no de-
duction should be allowed for the keeping of the horse
after the time of his straying.

I am yours, &c.
THE CASUIST.

SUPPLEMENT. 549

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.

WHENCE does it proceed, that the proselytes to any
sect, or persuasion, generally appear more zealous than
those that are bred up in it?

Answer. I suppose that people bred in different
persuasions are nearly zealous alike. Then, he that
changes his party is either sincere or not sincere ; that
is, he either does it for the sake of the opinions merely,
or with a view of interest. If he is sincere, and has no
view of interest, and considers, before he declares him-
self, how much ill will he shall have from those he
leaves, and that those he is about to go among will be
apt to suspect his sincerity ; if he is not really zealous,
he will not declare ; and, therefore, must be zealous if
he does declare.

If he is not sincere, he is obliged at least to put on
an appearance of great zeal, to convince the better his
new friends, that he is heartily in earnest ; for his old
ones, he knows, dislike him. And, as few acts of zeal
will be more taken notice of, than such as are done
against the party he has left, he is inclined to injure or
malign them, because he knows they contemn and
despise him. Hence, as the proverb says, One renegado
is worse than ten Turks.

SIR,

It is strange, that among men, who are born for soci-
ety and mutual solace, there should be any who take
pleasure in speaking disagreeable things to their ac-
quaintance. But such there are, I assure you ; and
should be glad if a little public chastisement might be

550 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

any means of reforming them. These ill-natured peo-
ple study a man's temper, or the circumstances of his
life, merely to know what disgusts him, and what he
does not care to hear mentioned ; and this they take
care to omit no opportunity of disturbing him with.
They communicate their wonderful discoveries to oth-
ers, with an ill-natured satisfaction in their counte-
nances ; Say such a thing to such a man and you cannot
mortify him worse. They delight (to use their own
phrase) in seeing galled horses wince, and, like flies, a
sore place is a feast to them. Know, ye wretches, that
the meanest insect, the trifling musqueto, the filthy bug,
have it in their power to give pain to men ; but to be
able to give pleasure to your fellow creatures requires
good nature and a kind and humane disposition, joined
with talents to which ye seem to have no pretension.

X. Y.

IF a sound body and a sound mind, which is as
much as to say, health and virtue, are to be preferred
before all other considerations, ought not men, in choos-
ing a business either for themselves or children, to re-
fuse such as are unwholsome for the body, and such
as make a man too dependent, too much obliged to
please others, and too much subjected to their humors
in order to be recommended and get a livelihood ?

I AM about courting a girl I have had but little ac-
quaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of
her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine
she has ?

Answer. Commend her among her female acquaint-
ance.

SUPPLEMENT. 551

THE great secret of succeeding in conversation is,
to admire little, to hear much ; always to distrust our
own reason, and sometimes that of our friends ; never
to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as
much as possibly we can ; to hearken to what is said,
and to answer to the purpose.

IN vain are musty morals taught in schools,
By rigid teachers and as rigid rules,
Where virtue with a frowning aspect stands,
And frights the pupil with her rough commands.

But woman

Charming woman can true converts make,
We love the precepts for the teacher's sake;
Virtue in her appears so bright and gay,
We hear with pleasure and with pride obey.

PROPOSALS AND QUERIES
FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE JUNTO. •

PROPOSALS.

THAT P. S. and A. N. be immediately invited into
the Junto.

That all new members be qualified by the four qual-
ifications, and all the old ones take

That these queries, copied at the beginning of a
book, be read distinctly at each meeting ; a pause be-

* For an account of the JUNTO, see above, p. 9. The queries appear
to have been the author's first thoughts, written down without regard
to method, and in parts are unfinished.

552 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

tween each, while one might fill and drink a glass of
wine.

That, if they cannot be gone through in one night,
we begin the next where we left off; only such as
particularly regard the Junto to be read every night.

That it be not hereafter the duty of any member to
bring queries, but left to his discretion.

That an old declamation be read without fail every
night, when there is no new one.

That Mr. Brientnal's poem on the Junto be read
once a month, and hummed in concert by as many as
can hum it.

That, in spring, summer, and fall, the Junto meet
once a month in the afternoon, in some proper place
across the river, for bodily exercise.

That in the aforesaid book be kept minutes, thus;

Friday, June 30th, 1732.
Present, A B, C D, E F, &c.
Figures f *• H. read this maxim, viz., or this experi-

denote ment' vi?'5 or' &c'

auer'es I ^* ^ately arrived one , of such a pro-

answered. _ Yf™ or suf, a ^ienee> &c'

^7. A. Y. grew rich by this means, &c.

That these minutes be read once a year at the an-
niversary.

That all fines due be immediately paid in, and the
penal laws for queries and declamations abolished ; only
he who is absent above ten times in the year to pay
ten shillings towards the anniversary entertainment.

That the Secretary, for keeping the minutes, be al-
lowed one shilling per night, to be paid out cf the
money already in his hands.

That, after the queries are begun reading, all dis-
course foreign to them shall be deemed impertinent.

When any thing from reading an author is men-

SUPPLEMENT. 553

tjoned, if it exceed a line, and the Junto require it,
he per** shall bring the passage or an abstract of i
the next night, if he has it not with him

When the books of the library come, every member
shall undertake some author, that he may not be with-
out observations to communicate.

QUERIES.

How shall we judge of the goodness of a writing?
Or what qualities should a writing have to be good and
perfect in its kind?

Answer. To be good, it ought to have a tendency
•to benefit the reader, by improving his virtue or his
knowledge. But, not regarding the intention of the
author, the method should be just; that is, it should
proceed regularly from things known to things un-
known, distinctly and clearly without confusion. The
words used should be the most expressive that the
language affords, provided that they are the most gen-
erally understood. Nothing should be expressed in
two words that can be as well expressed in one ; that
is, no synonymes should be used, or very rarely, but
the whole should be as short as possible, consistent
with clearness. The words should be so placed as to
be agreeable to the ear in reading; summarily, it
should be smooth, clear, and short. For the contrary
qualities are displeasing.

But, taking the query otherwise, an ill man may
write an ill thing well ; that is, having an ill design, he
may use the properest style and arguments (consider-
ing who are to be readers) to attain his ends. In this
sense, that is best wrote, which is best adapted for ob-
taining the end of the writer.

VOL. II. 70 UU

554 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

Can a man arrive at perfection in this life, as some
believe ; or is it impossible, as others believe ?

Answer. Perhaps they differ in the meaning of the
word perfection. I suppose the perfection of any thing
to be only the greatest the nature of the thing is capa-
ble of. Different things have different degrees of per-
fection, and the same thing at different times. Thus, a
horse is more perfect than an oyster, yet the oyster
may be a perfect oyster, as well as the horse a perfect
horse. And an egg is not so perfect as a chicken, nor
a chicken as a hen; for the hen has more strength
than the chicken, and the chicken more life than the
egg ; yet it may be a perfect egg, chicken, and hen.

If they mean a man cannot in this life be so perfect
as an angel, it may be true ; for an angel, by being in-
corporeal, is allowed some perfections we are at present
incapable of, and less liable to some imperfections than
we are liable to. If they mean a man is not capable
of being as perfect here as he is capable of being in
heaven, that may be true likewise. But that a man is
not capable of being so perfect here, as he is capable
of being here, is not sense ; it is as if I should say,
a chicken, in the state of a chicken, is not capable of
being so perfect as a chicken is capable of being in
that state.

In the above sense, there may be a perfect oyster,
a perfect horse, a perfect ship ; why not a perfect man ?
That is, as perfect as his present nature and circum-
stances admit.

Question. Wherein consists the happiness of a ra-
tional creature ?

Jlnswer. In having a sound mind and a healthy
body, a sufficiency of the necessaries and convenien-

SUPPLEMENT. 555

ces of life, together with the favor of God and the love
of mankind.

Q. What do you mean by a sound mind?

Jl. A faculty of reasoning justly and truly in
searching after such truths as relate to my happiness.
This faculty is the gift of God, capable of being im-
proved by experience and instruction into wisdom.

Q. What is wisdom?

A. The knowledge of what will be best for us on
all occasions, and the best ways of attaining it.

Q. Is any man wise at all times and in all things ?

Jl. No, but some are more frequently wise than
others.

Q. What do you mean by the necessaries of life ?

A. Having wholesome food and drink wherewith to
satisfy hunger and thirst, clothing, and a place of hab-
itation fit to secure against the inclemencies of the
weather.

Q. What do you mean by the conveniences of
life?

Jl. Such a plenty

Whether it is worth a rational man's while to fore-
go the pleasure arising from the present luxury of
the age, in eating and drinking, and artful cookery,
studying to gratify the appetite, for the sake of enjoy-
ing a healthy old age, a sound mind, and a sound
body, which are the advantages reasonably to be ex-
pected from a more simple and temperate diet?

Whether those meats and drinks are not the best,
that contain nothing in their natural taste, nor have any
thing added by art, so pleasing as to induce us to eat
or drink when we are not thirsty or hungry, or after

556 FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS.

thirst and hunger are satisfied; water, for instance,
for drink, and bread or the like for meat?

Is there any difference between knowledge and
prudence ? If there is any, which of the two is most
eligible ?

Is it justifiable to put private men to death for the
sake of public safety or tranquillity, who have com-
mitted no crime? As, in the case of the plague, to
stop infection; or, as in the case of the Welshmen
here executed?

If the sovereign power attempts to deprive a sub-
ject of his right, (or, which is the same thing, of what
he thinks his right,) is it justifiable in him to resist, if
he is able?

What general conduct of life is most suitable for
men in such circumstances as most of the members of
the Junto are? Or, of the many schemes of living
which are in our power to pursue, which will be most
probably conducive to our happiness ?

Which is best, to make a friend of a wise and good
man that is poor, or of a rich man that is neither wise
nor good?

Which of the two is the greatest loss to a country
if they both die ?

Which of the two is happiest in life?

Does it not, in a general way, require great study
and intense application for a poor man to become rich
and powerful, if he would do it without the forfeiture
of his honesty?

Does it not require as much pains, study, and appli-
cation, to become truly wise and strictly virtuous, as to
become rich?

SUPPLEMENT. 557

Can a man of common capacity pursue both views
with success, at the same time?

If not, which of the two is it best for him to make
his whole application to ?

Whence comes the dew, that stands on the outside
of a tankard that has cold water in it in the summer
time?

Does the importation of servants increase or ad-
vance the wealth of our country?

Would not an office of insurance for servants be of
service, and what methods are proper for the erecting
such an office?

END OF VOL. II.

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