The Sun.
London, England, 1826-08-28 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 28, 182-6-.

The LIFE of BENJAMIN FRANXLIN.

London, Itmo. m). 407.

Of all those strong minds whom the spirit-stirring
movements of the American Revolution shook up
into action, Doctor Franklin's was
decidedly the most
prominent and energetic. He it was who first roused,
the dormant vigour of his countrymen ;
them the multiplicity taught,
and strength
nal resources ; shamed the coWard, confirmed the cou-
.of their own inter-
rageous, and by the irresistible force of his own ex-:
ample, seconded by the domestic diplomacy of Adams,
and the arms of Washington, succeeded in establishing
the independence of America. All this he effected
by the mere force of mind, for neither to birth or for-
turne was he indebted for any of those advantages
which are usually deemed requisite to smuts success
in life.

flis father was a tallow chandler in Boston, who
from the pressure of circumstances was compelled..to
'migrate from England in 1882, where he brought
up a numerous family of sons, of whom Benjamin,
the subject of this Memoir, was the third. In early
youth he worked at his father's business; but having
soon taken an invincible dislike to it, he was ap-
prenticed to his brother, a printer, in Boston,
by whom his talents were for a while appreciated,
'and afterwards discouraged from a mean but too na-
tural jealousy. The origin of this dislike was as fol-
lows ; a paper had been established in Boston of
which the elder Franklin was proprietor, and to which
Benjamin had rendered himself so serviceable as a con-
tributor that his brother was unable to do without
liim ; as, however, he was. himself a writer for it, his
vanity was piqued at the idea of being excelled by a
younger brother, and he accordingly. after few pre-
fatory quarreils, abruptly dismissed him from his em-
Ploy. Instead of returning home, where the young
man, as he says in his journal, " deemed himself dis-
graced"—though why or wherefore none but himself
can tell—he instantly on quitting his brother started
or 'alone for Philadelphia, whitherrafter many:difficul-
ties and privations he arrived. In' this town he en-
dured the usual sufferings consequent on starvin ob-
scurity, till in a tit of desperate impudence"' he
presented himself at the Printing Office of one Keimer ;
spoke vauntingly of his own superior qualifications,
and concluded: by proposing an engagement, which
after some hours acute cross-examination by the printer,
Was accepted. .He remained in Keimer's employ for
upwards of six months, when from some disagreeMent
not very accurately explained in. his memoirs, he
left .him to return to Boston, from which town
he shortly afterwards sailed on a visit of spe-
culation to England. Of his habits and em-
ployments here he does not ftilly speak enough; how.
ever, may be gleaned from his Memoirs to prove that
he again engaged himself to a Printer in Queensetreeti
Lincoln's-inn-fields, where lie contrived to pickup' an
acquaintance with the once notorious alph, an author
whom Pope has " d—d to immortality," in his Dun-
ciad. This intimacy rendered him for a time somes
what, dissipated; the mind, however, of such a man
as Franklin was not to he altogether melted in the
furnace of profligacy, and accordingly we find him in
the course of a few years resuming his natural propen-
sities to study ; which soon settled down into a con-
firmed love for mechanics and natural philosophy.
Poverty, however, notivithstanding a severe system of
economy he had adopted, still cramped
.his energies,
and it was not till after his return to America, that he
began to be distinguished as a public character. Mean-
while the inhabitants of Philadelphia had not forgotten
him during his absence ; gleams.. of that penetrating
judgment, which afterwards enabled .him to hurl the
thunder of 'America on the mother country, and
which shone forth occasionally among the mists of an
unformed intellect, had won their respect and affection,
So that he found himself, as he says, on his return,
" no hopeless wanderer come back ; but a citizen re-
turned in honour." He remained at Philadelphia in
the capacity Of printev and publisher for upwards of
twenty years, now.and then visiting the home of his
family'at Boston, and 'sometimes even extending 'his
visits 'to Europe, till a remarkable discovery which he
made with:respect to electricity and animal magnetism,
placed him at of at the head of all modern philoso-
phers, andintroduced him to the society and patronage,
of the first rate European literati. It was `about this
time that the memorable quarrel between Boston
and England—respecting some additional duties on
tea, with which the latter resolved to tax the colonies,
took place ; and as the disagreement, so far from sub-
siding, seemed to,gather strength in proportion to its
duration, Doctor Franklin was dispatched by the
United States to England, nominally to implore her
compassion, but in reality to enquire into her resources
and capacity for wari Here he was received with the
respect due to his celebrity : Doctors Priestly and
Price sought his acquaintance as an honour ; and
the Univeriity of Oxford, nobly disdainful of all
party prejudices, conferred on him the degree of Doc-
tor of Civil Laws. By the politicians of the day, par-
ticularly Lord Chatham and his connexion, he was re-
ceived with -equal courtesy, but unfortunittelY a 'strong
hostility prevailed against America in the Cabinet, so
that notwithstanding the prophetic fulminations of
Lord Chatham, a war with the Colonies was resolved
on ; and Franklin, finding all further intercession use-
less; prepared for his departure to Paris, in order to
solicit' the good offices of Gosiernment in behalf of his
insulted country. It into this -Perind of hislife that
the observant reader of Flll4llO R. Memoirs will turn
with the greatest eatisfection. He will there find (lit-
fieulties almost unprecedented,' prejudices' more than
usually violent, all slowly but surely sapped, under.
mined,, and finally overcome, by the resistless powers of
overturn' all the
an acute, persevering, and commanding intellect.
When Franklin entered Paris, he entered it. an ohs
he quitted it a triumphant conqueror. He
scarephratelj '11(1°11 rebel,et 8 by one,
centuries ta c°.
el re rtv earn e acidd in favor of legitis
ie
macy ; to procure loans for a rebellious country in a
state literally of insolvency ;to throw rrebellion all
the halo and the splendour offreeilomonid 'in short by
his own unassisted eneriss, to _carry with him the
opinions of a mighty and absolute monarchy. All

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