Title: A Committee of the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital to Franklin, David Barclay, and John Fothergill, 20 October 1772
From: Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital
To: Franklin, Benjamin,Barclay, David Junior,Fothergill, John

Esteemed Friends
Philadia. 10th. Mo. 20th. 1772
It is with much satisfaction we received Intelligence from our Friend David Barclay, by his Letter of the 27th Augst. That, “by Order of the Court of Chancery there is transferred to you, for the use of the Pennsylvania Hospital, Seven thousand, six hundred and thirty four pounds 11s. 1d. three per Cent reduced Bank Annuities, Also that the Court has directed the payment of Nine hundred and Nine pounds 1s. 4d. the Amount of dividends due thereon”, which transfer we conclude you will have accepted, and received the said Dividends long before this can come to your hands.
The Managers have therefore agreed to dispose of Bills of Exchange to the Amount of Three thousand pounds Sterling, which they expect to be able to Effect in a Short time, in such manner as to have the money immediately placed out here on good real securities at our Legal Interest.
You are therefore requested to sell out so much Capital Stock, as with the Payment for the dividends will Enable You to discharge our Drafts to the Amount above mentioned, the particulars of which you will hereafter be duly advised of, and we hope you will have it in your Power to make Sale of the Stock at the rate mentioned viz. 89 per Cent or in case of any emergency reducing the Value of them below that rate, that you act therein with such precaution, as to provide against any material Loss.
Expecting to have the further pleasure of hearing again from you soon, agreeable to the intimation of our Friend David Barclay; and to receive the Solicitors Bill for transacting the Affair We are respectfully Your Obliged Friends
The Managers for the present year are

Israel Pemberton
Jacob Lewis
}
And it is agreed that the Bills to be drawn be Signed by at least, Eight of us

Samuel Rhoads
Thomas Wharton

John Reynell
Daniel Roberdeau

Isaac Jones
Isaac Cox

Joseph Morris
William Logan

To Docr. John Fothergill Benjamin Franklin and David Barclay Agents in London for the Pennsylvania Hospital


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, 28 October 1772
From: Barbeu-Dubourg, Jacques
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Monsieur et cher Ami
A Paris ce 28e. 8bre. 1772
Je travaille autant qu’il est en moi à remplir mes engagemens, en refondant en entier la traduction de vos excellens ouvrages; mais je sens trop ce qui me manque pour esperer de rendre la copie digne de l’original. Trouvez bon que je vous demande quelques eclaircissemens à mesure que j’avancerai.
Je ne trouve point dans le dictionaire le mot orreries page 34, je conjecture qu’il signifie cadrans.
Non plus que les mots surf and spray page 41, que je ne devine pas, et qui m’arrêtent.
Ni jostled, page 47, qui cependant m’embarrasse moins.
Votre experience avec la fumee de resine pour rendre visible l’athmosphere electrique me satisfait beaucoup. En avez vous tiré tout le parti que vous auriez pu? Je m’en rapporte à vous.
Je voudrois savoir ce qu’entend le Dr.——par my old theme, et par your Doctrine of the Origin, &c.
Les experiences sur le froid produit par les corps evaporables ne vous engagera-t-il point à en faire quelques unes sur le chaud produit par les corps deliquescens, c’est a dire qui attirent l’humidité de l’air, et s’y liquefient, comme l’alkali fixe du tartre, d’où provient l’huile de tartre par defaillance (per deliquium)? Par rapport à l’electricité medicale, les experiences de l’Abbé Sans, (il y a deux ans) n’eurent pas les grands succès qu’il en promettoit. Je vous envoye cyjoint le detail d’une autre expe[rience] assez singuliere que suit un simple artiste; a qui j’ai donné une petite consultation à ce sujet, où vous verrez une idée peu commune que j’avois depuis longtems sur l’epilepsie.
Je reviens à vos lettres sur les refroidissemens, page 347, est-il bien exact de dire que le ver a soye est vétu de sa soye dans son etat d’embryon? Le changement du ver en chrysalide se fait dans le coucon de soye, mais le veritable etat d’embryon est, à mon avis, dans l’oeuf avant que le ver en eclose.
Ne manque-t’il pas à votre quarré magique de 8, de faire par ses diagonales 260? Je me suis amusé à en faire un qui remplit toutes vos conditions et quelques autres difficultés de plus, comme de pouvoir en transposer des moitiés, ou des quartiers sans y causer aucun prejudice et qui de tous les sens fait toujours 11000 en l’honneur des 11000 vierges de nos legendes. Dans votre quarré magique de 16, il y a au moins un nombre repeté (241) et au moins une ligne fautive qui est la ie. comme je m’en suis tenu a cette tres legere inspection que le hazard m’a procuré, je desirerois que vous revoyiez s’il n’y en auroit pas d’autres.
Coals page 362, est à ce qu’il me semble ce que nous appellons du charbon de terre, mais nous le regardons comme un fossile d’origine vegetale, et non de la 1e. antiquite de notre globe faites y attention.
Avez vous repeté votre jolie experience sur le mouvement des liqueurs avec 3 liquides de pesanteurs differentes et de couleurs assez distinctes comme l’huile de gayac, l’eau et l’huile commune? Comme j’avois eu l’honneur de vous le proposer?
Ne vous sembleroit il pas interessant de chercher à determiner le maximum et le minimum des rapports de la profondeur des canaux navigables aux bateaux qu’ils doivent porter?
Je n’ai point trouvé dans le dictionaire le mot track-schuyt page 492. Mais voilà assez de questions à la fois. Si vous pouvez vous faire à mes importunités, elles seront suivies de beaucoup d’autres.
Voulez vous que je vous envoye quelques cayers traduits, avant d’aller plus loin? Ils peuvent bien faire actuellement la 8e. partie du total. Je vous en ferai passer au moins quelques uns par Melle. Biheron, si elle retourne a Londres vers la fin du mois prochain, comme elle s’y dispose; mais je crains 1o. pour sa santé qui n’est pas encore trop bonne. 2o. Pour ses fraix, qui ne sauroient manquer d’etre grands, et qu’elle ne retirera peutetre pas encore. Au nom de Dieu, si vous ne voyez pas jour à un meilleur succès de ce voyage que du precedent, faites moi la grace de me le dire entre nous, j’insisterois sur des motifs de santé pour la retenir.
Je vais songer aussi à faire regraver les planches necessaires pour l’edition prochaine; ainsi je vous prie 1o. de revoir le grand quarré magique, pour le rendre absolument correct, 2o. de songer si vous n’auriez pas quelques nouvelles figures à ajouter auxdites planches, et de m’en faire part sans delay. Il faut faire en sorte que vous puissiez emporter avec vous, quand notre Europe vous reperdra, une paquotille de la traduction complette de vos ouvrages.

Par rapport à mon petit Code de la Raison, je m’en tiens a ce que j’ai eu l’honneur de vous marquer par ma derniere. Si vous trouvez trop d’embarras à le faire imprimer en françois a Londres, faites moi la grace de me le renvoyer; je pourrai le faire imprimer secretement en province.
Ma femme, et ses voisines et tous vos amis et amies de ma connoissance m’ont chargé de mille amitiés pour vous sans oublier votre digne ami M. Pringle. J’ai l’honneur d’etre avec un inviolable attachement, Monsieur et cher Ami, Votre tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur
Dubourg


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from William Henly, [28 October? 1772]
From: Henly, William
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir:
Wednesday 2 OClock [October 28, 1772?]
I have this morning received the [enclosed] Letter from a friend at Lewes, and though it may contain nothing that is new or very material, yet I take the liberty of sending it to you thinking it may employ a few leisure minutes if you have any such. I this morning left at Mr. Nairnes a drawing for an instrument to shew your beautiful experiments with the point. I think I have given it every convenience you can wish, and in as simple a manner as possible. In short I flatter my self that it will meet with your approbation, as I think I have much improved upon the sketch I produced last night at your house.

I hope Sir you will some day give me leave to take a copy of your experiments and observations, which are certainly exceedingly clear and satisfactory and such as I cannot but think will prove really beneficial to the public. I have the Honour to be Dr. Franklins obliged and very Humble Servant
W Henly

Addressed: To / Dr. Franklin / Craven-street / Strand


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from William Franklin, 29 October 1772
From: Franklin, William
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Honoured Father,
Burlington Octr. 29th. 1772
I writ to you on the 13th. Inst. by Capt. All, and informed you that yours of the 3d. of Augst. was not come to hand; since which I have received it by the Septr. Packet. What prevented it from coming by the Augst. Packet, as my Mother’s of the same Date did, I know not. I have likewise received yours of the 17th. of Augst. by Sutton (I believe,) and your long Letter of Augst. 19, with Additions to the 24th. by Falkener also yours of Septr. 2 and 3 per the Packet.
At present I can only take notice of the first Paragraph of yours dated Augst. 19, wherein you mention that Mr. Wharton told you, on your beginning to mention the Intelligence I had sent you respecting the Virginia Claim, “that he had all that Intelligence long before, that there was little or nothing in it, since the Grants being made contrary to Proclamation, and the Surveys without Authority, they were all void.” I doubt not but he has had all that Intelligence before, and that he does not think it prudent, as you say, to talk of those Grants lest our most influential Partners should be discouraged. However, as I did not think it just that they should, for the Sake of carrying a present Point, be deceived to their Loss, I thought it my Duty to acquaint you, from time to time, that you might inform them, what Opposition we are likely to meet with in getting Possession of our Lands, even if we should obtain our Grant. The Virginia Claims to the Land on the Ohio may possibly prove on Examination to be not well founded, but I think, such as they are, they ought to be made known beforehand to the Gentlemen who are to pay their Money for a Colony in that Country. If you have read the Extracts from the Journals of the Virginia Assembly, which I mentioned in my last as sent to Mr. Todd by the Septr. Packet, you will there see that the Virginians found their Claim on a Report of the Board of Trade in 1769, the King’s Approbation of it, and a Requisition made in pursuance thereof for £2500 Sterling, which the Assembly accordingly advanced. Lest those Extracts may not have been shewn to you, I now send you a Copy of a State of the Virginia Claim, which I made out from them, together with some Remarks thereupon. These cannot fail giving you a proper Idea of the Matter, and I must beg you, let Mr. Wharton say what he will, to make it an Object of your particular Attention. If there has been such a Report of the Board of Trade, with the King’s Confirmation sent to Virginia, it may possibly account for Lord H’s late Opposition to the Grant of a new Colony. He might be apprehensive of that Transaction being thereby brought to light, and that his Character would suffer for having at first encouraged the Design of a new Colony, at the very Time he was authorizing the People of Virginia to take Possession of the Country for themselves in which it was to be established. If these Things are so, how can we account for Mr. Jackson, Mr. Cooper, Govr. Pownall, cum multis aliis, being ignorant of them? If they are not so, to let us here know the Truth, and to let the Virginians know it, who rely much upon them, ought certainly to be done, otherwise the worst of Consequences may happen. Should the Extent of Country claimed by Virginia as their Boundary be confirmed, you will easily see by looking at Evans’s Map, that the small Tract which will be left for the Proprietors of the new Colony, will not be worth their Purchase Money. One Reason, therefore, why I think our influential Friends ought to be particularly informed of the real State of this Matter is, that they may use their Influence, in case those Claims can’t be set aside, to obtain for us a proportionably valuable Tract lower down the Ohio. But common Honesty, I think, requires they should know the whole Truth, let the Event be what it may. At any Rate, I was determined to clear my Conscience, which I think I have fully done by the Letters I have sent you on the Subject, and by writing the enclosed State.
I likewise send you a Copy of a Letter from Mr. Hooper to me, enclosing one from Mr. Tilghman, respecting [Mr.?] Penn’s Western Boundary, which I think of Consequence [torn] Boundary certainly ought to be, if we may ju[dge by the] Words of the Charter, a crooked Line according to the Curves of the Delaware; and such a Line, as it happens, will be most advantageous to the Proprietors of the new Colony; at least in the Opinion of Mr. Hooper, who has taken a great deal of Pains in his Enquiries, in hopes of being the Surveyor General. It was him I recommended to you to propose for that Office, and not Mr. Hutchins, as you seem by your Letter to understand. The latter is an Officer in the Regulars at Pensacola.
I write this in a Hurry, in hopes of reaching Capt. Sutton, who I hear is to leave Philadelphia Tomorrow. By Capt. Falconer I shall answer all your Letters fully. In the mean Time, I am, as ever, Honoured Sir, Your dutiful Son
Wm: Franklin

P.S. Pray observe the Caution with regard to Mr. Tilghman’s Letter, as requested by Mr. Hooper.

Addressed: To / Dr Franklin / Craven Street / London


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to William Hunter, 30 October 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Hunter, William

The partnership between Dr. William Hunter and Polly Hewson’s husband was dissolved, after much recrimination, during the winter of 1771–72. Dr. Hunter had stipulated that the “preparations,” in other words the demonstration material for the anatomy course that they had been giving jointly, should remain his sole property. But in the summer of 1772 the irascible Doctor relented somewhat: although he could not bring himself to give the material to Hewson directly, he did give it to Franklin, who assumed that it was meant for Polly’s husband. Hunter then seems to have repented of his generosity; at least he queried Franklin about what he had done with the gift, and evoked this answer.

Sir,
Cravenstreet, Oct. 30. 1772
I should sooner have answered your Questions but that in the Confusion of my Papers, occasioned by removing to another House, I could not readily find the Memorandums I had made during the unpleasant Time in which, as a common Friend, I was obliged to hear your and Mr. Hewson’s mutual Complaints. I have now found one of those Memorandums, dated Augt. 23, 1771 the same which I afterwards read to you, containing your Idea as then express’d of the Terms on which you were to proceed together. The following is an Extract from it. …
<He expects Hewson to continue, while they are associated, to make preparations at Hunter’s direction and expense and, once these are done, others of his own if he wishes; all that are made become Hunter’s property, to dispose of as he pleases.>
Some time last Summer, after your Parting, you wrote me a Note, which I cannot at present find, but I think the Purport of it was, that you had some Preparations which you could spare and were dispos’d to give me, desiring I would call and look at them; I did so, and accepted them. I apprehended it to be your Supposition in giving them to me, that as I had no Use for them, I should probably give them to Mr. Hewson, which I immediately did. Having said this, I must add, in Justice likewise to Mr. Hewson, that his Conception of the original Agreement between you was, that he had a Right to make such Preparations for himself, your Business and the common Interest of the Partnership not being neglected. Here you had differ’d in Opinion; but came to a kind of Compromise express’d in a Paper that I handed between you, a Copy of which I have obtain’d from Mr. Hewson to send you. I am, Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
Dr Hunter


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from William Marshall, 30 October 1772
From: Marshall, William
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir.
Philadelphia October 30th. 1772
I beg leave to lay before you an affair very interesting to all in our Communion and to some thousands of other religious denominations in this extensive province. Ten petitions from sundry parts of the province were laid before our Legislative body last winter Setting forth the complication of grievances we labour under arising from our Conscientious Scruples about the mode of swearing by kissing the Gospels; and praying for an indulgence in swearing by an uplifted right hand the mode practised in Scotland Holland and Germany where the most of the Scruplers did originally come from.
The prayer of our Petitions has been granted with the greatest unanimity. Our petitions were enforced by sundry others from persons who tho they did not scruple the common mode themselves yet saw the difficulty we laboured under did pray for this indulgence to us as being for the good of the community; many of this last class of Petitioners were magistrates and other persons in some of the most important Stations in the Colony.

The mode of swearing by lifting up the hand and swearing by Almighty God is innocent in itself and in our opinion most agreable to his word the only rule of faith and manners among protestants; it is influential upon the wellfare of Government and agreable to the British Constitution particularly the Constitution of this highly favoured Colony which breathes so much tenderness to the Sacred rights of Conscience and is absolutely inimical to evry species of persecution for Conscience sake. It has been always used in Scotland and the New England Colonies without any inconvenience; Yea it is practised by our Sovereigns themselves when they take the Coronation oath for the protestant Establishment in North Britain pursuant to the union. It was allowed by Judges in England to be valid in the case of some Scots men who were called thither to give Evidence against the Rebels after the last Rebellion.
We can assure you Sir that our Scruples about kissing the Gospels in swearing do not arise from the want of Loyalty to our Soveregn king George or regard to the Laws of our Country, we can produce as triumphant Evidence of our Loyalty as any of our fellow subjects, nor from an affection of Novelty (for the mode now allowed us is not new), far less from any stubborness of Temper, but from a conscientious persuasion that lifting up the hand and swearing by God is most agreable to his revealed will in that solemn act of adoration. This is an affair very interesting to us and our posterity since it affects our religious Liberty and so nearly concerns our conscience which is exempted from human jurisdiction.
Tho’ some may view our conscientious scruples as groundless they are however invincible while we are not possessd of evidence that this is the case. We hope they will not be deemd a whimsical novelty, or having a tendency to injure Government by weaking the Solemnity of an oath or opning a door for unnecessary innovations; it is the very opposite to these we aim at. The weaknesses of subjects when not injurious to the interests of Community are tenderly provided for in our excellent Constitution. Moreover the mode of swearing by kissing the Gospels is not essential to the oath but is a circumstance which may be dispensed with when the investigation of Truth renders it necessary. The indulgence now granted us and which only wants the royal assent to render it permanent is not so much as has been granted to others which makes us hope that we shall be successfull. Quakers Menonists and Moravians are allowed the affirmation in lieu of an oath and Jews to swear by the Pentateuch, we are his majesty’s natural born subjects who only want the mode which takes [place?] already in different parts of the British Empire and in no place can indulgences of this kind be granted with greater propriety than in Pennsylvania; This Dr. Franklin well knows.
If this Law now made in our favour shall be reversed, I tremble to paint the consequences then upwards of six thousand sober and industrious inhabitants of this province must be reduced to a very disstressing alternative; Either they must violate the sacred rights of Conscience, or suffer in their persons and properties and be debarred from serving their Country in ev’ry case where an oath is required, an alternative very opposite to that Constitution erected by the great Sir William Penn and maintaind hither to inviolate by his Illustrious posterity yea to that Spirit which we found breathing in our legislative body when we laid our case before them. The speaker of the house and sundry of the Representives of this County pushd the affair in our favour with all the ardor as if it had been in behalf of Quakers. Our rising Community must be nipt in the bud if the royal assent is denied and that yoke of superstition wreathed again about our necks. May it therefore please you Sir to use your influence With our Gracious sovereign king George and the members of his honourable privy Council to prevent this Law made in our favour from being repealed and thereby you will more eminently serve a religious denomination, than in any other earthly concern. In their name I now address you, and having nothing more to add but best wishes for your health and prosperity, and that I am Sir your most obedient most humble Servant.
William Marshall.

If you are pleased to favour me with a Letter informing me how this matter that we are so anxious about: and so impatient to know the fate of, direct to, minister to the Scotch presbyterian Cong. in Philada. The members of our Presbytery who are six in number in this Province (and all of us Scotch-men) would have all signd this letter could it have suited to waite till our next meeting: for we are so far sccaterd that it is difficult to meet together frequently and I apprehended no time was to be lost in applying as above. If money be necessary in pursuance of this affair please to inform us (as we are quite ignorant of affairs of this nature) and it shall be remitted.

Endorsed: Revd Mr Marshall about the Mode of Swearing. Oct 30. 72


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, [early November 1772]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Barbeu-Dubourg, Jacques

[Early November, 1772]
[First part missing] in this Foggy Climate and smoaky City without too much Hazard, I will do my utmost when she comes to promote her Interest.
It is true that many English People go to Paris, but I do not often know of their going, and therefore must sometimes make use of the Post, or wait long for an Opportunity of Writing to you.
About two Weeks since when I was in the Country a Letter from you was left at my House, which by its Date might have come round by the Way of China, for it is of May 27, 1771. There were left with it another Letter for Dr. Rush, and two Parcels of the Ephemerides, one for him the other for me, containing nine Books each. The Person who left them said he would call again to explain to me the Reason of their being so long detain’d; but he has not since called; and I have no Conception where they can possibly have been all this time. My Set is now compleat except Tom. XII. for the Year 1771. my last is Tom. III of the Sixth Year.
Salute Mad. Dubourg most affectionately in my Behalf, with Madelle. Biheron, and our other Friends. My best Wishes attend you all. I promise myself the Happiness of seeing them and you once more; for I think of returning home (when I do return) thro’ France and Italy, taking my Passage at Leghorn in some of our Ships that go thither with Corn, or Fish. I am ever, my dear Friend, with the sincerest Esteem, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin

The Code is now printed as far as Chap. LXXXVI, Intérêts generaux. I inclose a Leaf, as a Specimen of the Type.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Alexander Colden, 3 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Colden, Alexander

Dear Sir,
London, Nov. 3. 1772
Inclos’d I return to you Mackie’s Bill on Molleson for £294. 5s. 2d. with a Protest; the same being refus’d Payment for want of Effects.
The Packet of last Month is not yet arriv’d. I hope she will bring the Accounts so long expected. I am, Dear Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
Mr Alexr. Colden.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Foxcroft, 3 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Foxcroft, John

Dear Sir,
London, Nov. 3. 1772
I received your Favour of June 22d per Mr. Finlay, and shall be glad of an Opportunity of rendring him any Service on your Recommendation. There does not at present seem to be any Disposition of the Board to appoint a Riding Surveyor, nor does Mr. Finlay seem desirous of such an Employment. Every thing at the Office remains as when I last wrote, only the Impatience for the Accounts seems increasing. I hope they are in the October Packet now soon expected, agreable to Mr. Colden’s last Promises.

I spent a Fortnight lately at West Wyecomb, with our good Master Lord Le Despencer, and left him well.
The Boards have begun to act again, and I hope our Ohio Business will again go forward. My Love to my Daughter, concludes from Your affectionate Friend and humble Servant
B F
Mr Foxcroft


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 3–4 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Franklin, William

Dear Son,
London, Nov. 3[–4]. 1772
I wrote to you per the October Packet, and have not since had any Line from you. I spent 16 Days at Lord Le Despencer’s most agreably, and return’d in good Health and Spirits. Lord Dartmouth came to town last Week, and had his first Levee on Wednesday, at which I attended. He receiv’d me very politely in his Room, only Secy. Pownal present; expressing some Regret that he happened to be from home when I was near him in the Country, where he had hop’d for the Pleasure of seeing me, &c. I said I was happy to see his Lordship in his present Situation, in which for the good of both Countries I hoped he would long continue; and I begg’d Leave to recommend my Son to his Protection, who, says I, is one of your Governor’s in America. The Secy. then put in, And a very good Governor he is. Yes, says my Lord, he has been a good Governor, and has kept his Province in good Order, during Times of Difficulty. I then said, that I came at present only to pay my Respects, and should wait on his Lordship another Day on Business; to which he said he should always be ready to hear me and glad to see me. I shall attend his Levee again to day, on some N England Affairs, and hope we may now go on more smoothly; but Time will show. As the Boards are met again, the Ohio Affair will again be put forward as soon as Mr. Walpole comes to [Town?], who went lately into Norfolk. I am almost settled in my new Apartment; but Removing, and sorting my Papers and placing my Books and things has been a troublesome Jobb. I am amaz’d to see how Books have grown upon me since my Return to England. I brought none with me, and have now a Roomfull; many collected in Germany, Holland and France; and consisting chiefly of such as contain Knowledge that may hereafter be useful to America. My Love to Betsey, concludes at present from Your affectionate Father
B Franklin

Postscript to W F.
Nov. 4 I was this Day again at Lord Dartmouth’s Levee who show’d me particular Respect in sending for me out of the Crowd long before my Turn, and apologizing for having kept me so long by Means of Mr. Maseres’s detaining him on Canada Affairs. He receiv’d my Business too very properly not making any Objection to my Acting as Agent for the Massachusetts without the Governors Approbation of my Appointment as his Predecessor had done. Whether this will continue or not is now the Question; for as he has the same Secretaries, Pownall and Knox, probably they will remind him of the later Measures, and prompt him to continue them.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Peter Timothy, 3 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Timothy, Peter

Dear Sir,
London, Nov. 3. 1772
I received yours of Aug. 24. by Capt. Vanderhorst, to whom I should willingly have shown any Civilities in my Power, but I being gouty of late seldom go into the City, and he has not called on me since he delivered your Letter. I am sorry you talk of leaving off your Business with a View of getting some Post. It is so difficult a matter to obtain any thing of the kind, that I think to leave a good Trade in hopes of an Office, is quitting a Certainty for an Uncertainty, and losing Substance for Shadow. I have known so many here dangling and soliciting Years for Places, till they were reduc’d to the lowest Poverty and Distress, that I cannot but pity a Man who begins to turn his Thoughts that way: The Proverb says, He who has a Trade has an Office of Profit and Honour; because he does not hold it during any other Man’s Pleasure, and it affords him honest Subsistence with Independence. I hope therefore you will alter your mind and go on with your Business. I assure you it is not in my Power to procure you that Post you mention or any other, whatever my Wishes may be for your Prosperity. I am now thought here too much an American to have any Interest of the kind.
You have done me Honour in giving a Son my Name. I wish he may live to be an Honour and Comfort to you. With Compliments to Mrs. Timothy, I am ever, Dear Sir, Your faithful and most obedient Servant
B F.
Mr Timothy


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, Sr., 3 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Williams, Jonathan Sr.

Dear Cousin,
London, Nov. 3. 1772
My Sister, to whom I have not now time to write, acquainted me in her last Letter, that there was some Expectation her Daughter would soon be married with her Consent. If that should take Place, my Request is, that you would lay out the Sum of fifty Pounds, lawful Money, in Bedding or such other Furniture as my Sister shall think proper, to be given the new-married Couple towards Housekeeping, with my best Wishes: And charge that Sum to my Account. I can now only add that I am ever Yours most affectionately
B Franklin
Mr Jonathan Williams,


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 4 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Cushing, Thomas

Sir,
London, Nov. 4. 1772
Lord Dartmouth our new American Minister came to Town last Week, and held his first Levee on Wednesday, when I paid my Respects, acquainting him at the same time that I should in a few Days wait upon him on Business from Boston, which I have accordingly since done and have put your Petition to the King into his Hands, that being the regular Course. His Lordship receiv’d me very obligingly, and made no Objection to my acting as Agent without an Appointment assented to by the Governor, as his Predecessor had done; so that I hope Business is getting into better Train. I shall use my best Endeavours in supporting the Petition, and write to you again and more fully by the next Ship to Boston. In the mean time I remain with great Respect, Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
Mr Cushing


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 4 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Franklin, Deborah

My dear Child,
London, Nov. 4. 1772
I have been much in the Country this Summer, at the Houses of different Friends, and am now returned in good Health, Thanks to God. We are removed to a more convenient House in the same Street, Mrs. Stevenson having accommodated her Son-in-Law with that we lived in. The Removing has been a troublesome Affair, but is now over. My Love to our Children and Grandson. Tell our good Neighbour Miss Haddock, that her Silk is done, and shall be sent by the first Ship directly to Philadelphia. I am ever, my Dear Debby, Your affectionate Husband
B Franklin


Title: The Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital to Franklin, David Barclay, and John Fothergill, 4–7 November 1772
From: Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital
To: Franklin, Benjamin,Barclay, David Junior,Fothergill, John

Esteemed Friends
Pennsylvania Hospital 11 Mo. 4th.[–7] 1772
This accompanies duplicate of our last since which we have received Benja. Franklin’s favour of the [blank].

In pursuance of what we proposed, we have since drawn on you the following Bills at thirty days sight vizt.

No.1
payable to James Pearson for
£100.

2
ditto to ditto
100.

3
ditto to ditto
175.
£375.

4
ditto to Joseph King sign’d by all the same as above Except Israel Pemberton
}
200.

5
ditto to John Bull
500.

6
ditto to ditto
300.

7
ditto to ditto
250.

8
ditto to ditto
200.

9
ditto to ditto
150.

10
ditto to ditto
200.

11
ditto to ditto
275.
  1875.

  £2450.
  Sterling

And we intend in a few day to draw for £550. more, having the opportunity of selling the Bills at 60 per Cent Exchange, and of placing the Money on Interest at 6 per Cent, with Land Security.
We hope you will have the money in your hands before the Bills appear and become due, but that you may not be subjected to any inconvenience or our fund to any disadvantage in the Sale of the Stock, we have by the Tenor of the Bills contracted that they shall not be liable to any further damage, than the Payment of our Lawfull Interest after they become due, untill it suits you to discharge them. The Bills are printed in the like manner and Terms with the blank herein Inclosed. We are with much Respect Your assured Friends

11 Mo. 7th. 1772
We have further drawn on you Two Setts Bills as follows.

One Sett N. 12 payable to Cornelius Corsen
for
£200.

ditto 13 ditto to ditto
for
200.

£400. Sterling


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Nathaniel Falconer, 15 November 1772
From: Falconer, Nathaniel
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Dear Sir,
Philadelphia Novr. 15th. 1772
This serves to acquaint you I have sent you by Captn. Sutton one barrel of Newtown Pippens, one Cask of shell Bark Hickory nutts and two Kegs of bread which I hope will come safe to hand as the ship is going a voyage that was very disagreeable to me. I have concluded to stay at home this Winter, so that I shant have the Pleasure of keeping Christmas with you this year. I was a few days ago at Burlington, and spent some hours with your Son. He read me that part of your Letter where you mention’d receiving my Letter from the Downs for which I return you many thanks for your kind offer. If Mr. Wharton shoud, as I am not like to return to London, say he has not Received any mony on my account which I can hardly think he will Mr. Daniel Mildred who paid the money will at any time make it appear. I am very sorry Sir to give you any trouble about this matter but you know how the matter is and unless your kindness obtain it for me, it is very plain I shall neither get Land or my money back again, your son shew’d me the Claims made by the Virginia Company and his Remarks thereon if their Claime is good the remaining part of the grant will not be worth half the purchas’d money. My best Compliments to Mrs. Stevenson, Mr. and Mrs. Hewson, and Miss Hewson, Sally Franklin and Master Temple. I am Dear Sir, with great Regard Your most humble Servant
Nath Falconer

Addressed: To / Doctor Franklin / in / Craven Street, Strand. / London / per favor / Cap. Sutton


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to the Académie Royale des Sciences, 16 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Académie Royale des Sciences

Gentlemen,
London, Nov. 16. 1772
A Place among your foreign Members is justly esteemed, by all Europe, the greatest Honour a Man can arrive at in the Republick of Letters: It was therefore with equal Surprize and Satisfaction that I learnt you had condescended to confer that Honour upon me. Be pleased to accept my grateful Acknowledgements, and believe me with the greatest Esteem and Respect, Gentlemen, Your most obliged and most humble Servant
B Franklin
Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Deborah Franklin, 16 November 1772
From: Franklin, Deborah
To: Franklin, Benjamin

My Dear Child
November 16 1773 [i.e., 1772]
I did resevef yours by Capt. Folkner but as he dus not Saile to London I have sente to you by Capt. Suttun who was so verey obliging as to Cole to see me two Barrels of apels which I hope will provef good. I Cold not get sume Indea meel and Buck wheet flower but I shall by next opertunety. Salley and the Child is gon up to stay with mrs. Franklin while Billey is to stay sume days in town Mr. Beache is gon up to stay sume days and then returne with Billey when he Cumes to toune and what a taske it is to write a line. Give my love to everey one that knows me our Polley and her Son to Salley Franklin Mrs. Weste and her Sones Love them for me. Mr. Strahan and famely my friend our fine I shold say hes bin verey ill severel week I hold Mr. D Hall severel week I have bin to see him several times I hope he will be spaird for his famely sake and for maney others. I am your Afeckshonet wife
D Franklin

Addressed in another hand: To / Benjamin Franklin / Esq. / London


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from a Committee of the Managers of the Philadelphia Silk Filature, 17 November 1772
From: Managers of the Philadelphia Silk Filature
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Dear Friend
Philadelphia 17th: Novr. 1772
The new Elected Managers of the Filature met last Evening with a View of acknowledging thy late letters but found the Catharine Captain Sutton would depart so suddenly, that there was not Time, and therefore requested us to ask their excuse for the delay. And to forward said Captain Sutton’s Bill of Loading for two Trunks of Silk, the Produce of this Year, with a Certificate from our Custom House to recover Bounty. Their request is that thou will Employ our Friend Freeman, in Gracious Street, or any other Person thee may think will transact the business in the best way. Also “ The Managers request thy Acceptance of four pounds of the Silk now sent of such a quality as will suit the purpose thee may chuse to put it to best.”
We are sensible how much the promoters of the Culture of Silk are Obliged to Doctor Franklin for the trouble he has taken in the business; in their behalf, we thankfully Acknowledge it, and remain with perfect Esteem, his Assured ready Friends
Abel JamesBenjn. Morgan
Benjamin Franklin Esquire.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Foxcroft, 19 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Foxcroft, John

Dear Friend,
London, Nov. 19. 1772
I received yours and Mr. Colden’s with the Accounts, and Bills, per Packet, concerning which shall be more particular in my next. This Line is only to inform you, that in my Opinion you are likely to obtain from the Board the Addition you desire to enable you to live at New York; that probably Mr. Finlay will be appointed Riding Surveyor; and that the extraordinary Demand made on us for the Packet Letters is withdrawn I having settled that matter with the Office. On these Things I hope I shall be able by the Packet fully to congratulate you. On the other hand I am desired by Mr. Todd to tell you that the Accounts are by no means satisfactory, as the Money receiv’d from the Offices is lump’d, without any Accounts to support or vouch it: That always heretofore the separate Accounts of each Office were copied and sent over with the general Account; and these are now for the present Account expected from you without Delay. And when you send the Accounts of this Year to April next, the same are to accompany it, and so on from year to Year; otherwise the Accounts will not be accepted at the Auditor’s Office. He will write to you on this Head per Packet: But in the mean time I wish you would forward it immediately.
I will now only mention farther, that the Account of Bills sent me since our last Settlement is right; but that Credit should have been given me for two Bills return’d protested to Mr. Parker, as you will see by the enclos’d State of my Account copied from that I have delivered in. I can now only add my Love to my Daughter &c. Yours affectionately
B Franklin

  [In the margin:] On Cunningham
£20

  Prot.

25s.
  8d.

21
5s.
8d.

  On Milligan
52

  Prot

  5s.
  9d.

£73
11s.
5d.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 19 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Franklin, Deborah

My dear Child,
London, Nov. 19. 1772
I had no Line from you per last Packet, but hope to receive Letters of yours per Capt. All when he arrives. Thanks to God I am at present in very good Health and Spirits; which however I must not flatter myself will continue much longer, as the Course of Nature usually brings on with Age many Infirmities. As this Ship goes in a hazardous Season, I do not send Miss Haydock’s Silk by her, especially as being for Summer Wear it will be in time by the Spring Ships. Nor do I write now any other Letters but one to Mr. Foxcroft. My Love to Mr. Bache, Sally and the Boy. Ever yours I am affectionately
B Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to a Member of the Royal Society, 26 November 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: a Member of the Royal Society

Sir
Cravenstreet, Nov. 26. 1772
The Council of the Royal Society having put Sir John Pringle, Bart. in nomination for President; and being myself persuaded from what I know of his Learning in general, his thorough Acquaintance with Experimental Philosophy, his constant Attendance at our Meetings, and his extensive Reputation in the Republick of Letters throughout Europe, that he would fill that Office with great Propriety, and to the Honour and Advantage of the Society, I beg leave to request your Vote and Interest in Support of that Nomination. I am, very respectfully, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from William Henly, [26 November? 1772]
From: Henly, William
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Worthy Sir:
Thursday mor[ning, November 26?, 1772]
I have Received your very obliging favour, and take the first opportunity of returning you my most sincere thanks for the trouble I have given you. I have done very little in Electricity since I had the pleasure of seeing you, one appearance however I beg leave to trouble you with, as I have never met with one of the kind before. Having charged my 6 Gallon Jar so as to repel the Index of the Electrometer to about 75 degrees, I insulated it, with a view to discharge it by giving it the contrary Electricity, but finding the Electrometer very damp, and much disposed to throw off the Electric matter, I applied the Ball of a long Rod (which I had in my hand) to the top of the stem, when the whole charge seem’d to fly off in a very fine stream almost instantaneously, and the index came directly into contact with the Ball of the Jar wire. As this happen’d so suddenly and every thing was kept at such a distance from the coating, I suspected that the outside could not have Received its natural quantity so fast as it had been drawn off from the inside, and on presenting my finger towards the Coating, when it had come within an Inch distance of it, a most beautiful and large pencil flew off from my finger, finely diverging towards the coating of the Jar much resembling one of those towards a very large Excited stick of sealing Wax. Probably this Sir may be no new appearance to you, but should that be the case, I flatter myself you will excuse the trouble I give you by laying before you an Account of it.
I now venture to give my 2 large Jarrs their full charge, even so as to cause a Cascade of Fire to flow over the Neck of the thickest of them which repels the Index of the Electrometer, the whole thickness of the Rod above right Angles or 90 degrees.
With this charge, I have procured a large quantity of those Balls Mr. Canton was so obliging as to shew me, and a great number of large vitrified pieces, perfectly visible to the naked Eye; I have preserved both, for your inspection. I have never fail’d with this charge to fire a quil of Gunpowder, fill’d with the whole grains, and without at all drying or preparing them, tho the weather had made them very damp. Mr. Nairne thinks to finish my new Machine by the latter end of this week, when I receive it, I intend myself the pleasure of waiting on you, to request the Honour and favour of your Company to spend another Evening with me in the Electrical way. I beg your excuse for this long interruption, and that you would believe me most sincerely your obliged, and very Humble Servant
W Henly

Addressed: To / Dr. Franklin / Craven Street / Strand


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from William Henly, 28 November 1772
From: Henly, William
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Novr. 28. 1772.
The Description and use, of a new Conductor for Experiments in Electricity, contrived by Mr. H——and executed by Mr. Edward Nairne.

A.
A Tube of Glass 2 feet in length, 2 Inches diameter.

B. C.
Balls with a ferril of Brass (2 Inches long, to each) which are to be cemented to the ends of the tube, and made Air tight. One of the plates which are solder’d to the ferrils, hath a small hole dril’d through it, by which the Air is to be exhausted; it is cover’d by a strong valve well secured, and conceal’d by the brass ball.

[E.] F.
A Coating of Cement from the Brass caps, 3 Inches upon the glass at each end, to prevent the moisture from adhering to the tube, and conducting the Electricity over its outer surface.

G. H.
Balls of Brass ½ Inch diameter fixed upon wires which project into the tube 5/2 Inches from the plate at the end of it.

I.
A fine point to collect the Electricity from the globe [in the margin:] or to disperse it in the Air as in the above experiment.

K. K.
Supporters of sealing wax, upon which the Glass Conductor is to be mounted for experiments.

L.
A Bottle properly prepared for electrical experiments and charged positively.

N.B. The dots in the tube are intended to represent the appearance of the Electricity in it.

The use of the Glass Conductor
The Glass tube thus furnished and mounted, being properly exhausted, and perfectly dry, will Act in all respects like one of Metal: and the Electrometer being placed upon the Brass ball C. will answer to the charge of a Jar or Battery exactly. But the principal use of this Instrument is to ascertain the direction of the Electric matter, as it passes through it; which end it compleatly answers in the manner following. Place the collecting point before the Globe, and sit a bottle with its Knob in contact with the Ball C. of the Conductor, or hang a chain &c. from thence to the table, and the Ball H. in the Tube (on working the Machine,) becomes entirly enveloped in a dense white Atmosphere of Electricity. If the point I. of the Conductor be brought nearly into contact with an insulated Rubber, and a communication be made from the opposite end to the Earth; the ball G. in the tube, will be surrounded with the Atmosphere. If the bottle L. be charged positively and its Knob be applied as in the figure the Atmosphere will be upon G. But charge the Bottle negatively and apply it as before, and the Atmosphere will then appear upon H.
Conjectures on these phenomena.
It is supposed that the impelling power of the Globe, or the Knob of a positively charged bottle, drives the particles of the Electricity through the substance of the Ball, wire &c. (with which they are in contact,) with great velocity, and [moving?] in a straight Line; But the Electricity having enter’d the vacuum, the repulsion of its particles immediately takes place, and the tube is instantly fill’d with Light. The dense white Atmosphere upon the opposite Ball is imagin’d to proceed from this cause, for as every particle is supposed to be in a state of repellency with respect to its next neighbour, and as the Vacuum gives them a free liberty of expanding themselves, or standing at their greatest distance from each other: they will not enter the opposite ball in the tube in a point or small space as they do in the open Air, but (as before observed,) having free liberty to expand themselves, their natural property of repelling each other, causes them actually to do so, and thus the Wire and ball, becomes illumin’d with a very dense Atmosphere of the particles of Electricity, which they enter in all parts, at the same time, in order to their conveyance into those bodies, placed to receive them at the end of the Brass work.

By this simple and easy process, may an ocular demonstration be at all times given, of the truth and propriety of Dr. Franklins hypothesis of the Leiden Bottle &c. And if his Doctrines are but embraced, till his Opponents bring as good proofs of their being erroneous; I flatter myself that Learned, Candid and Ingenious Gentleman, will scarcely wish them to be retained longer.
Mr. Henly sends his most grateful acknowledgments of Dr. Franklins favour of this day, and assures him the injunctions in his Card shall be stric[tly complied?] with. Mr. H. earnestly hopes to hear o[f the health?] of his worthy Friend and the whole family.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from David Colden, 30 November 1772
From: Colden, David
To: Franklin, Benjamin

  Novr. 30th. 1772
  Dear Sir

The attention you pay to every Invention that promises either utility or amusement to Mankind induces Me to communicate to you a very simple Machine which I have made this Year for sowing Seeds in Rows. I am happy in haveing an opportunity of addressing you upon any Thing that may be worth your Notice; If it shall prove of no real value to others, it gives me a very great pleasure by introduceing Me again to one I so greatly Esteem and Admire.
I know nothing of Drill Ploughs, or of the Drill Husbanday but what I have learnd from Books. I find it a general Complaint of the best Machines that have been invented for this Work, that they are so Complex, so Gimcrak so easily put out of Order, and so difficultly repaird, and with all so high Priced, as to be entirely unfit for the uses of common Farmers. That which I have contrived is quite simple, may be made by any common Workman, and at a very triffling Expence. It has answerd my Expectations in sowing Pease, Wheat Turnips and Lucern; it may however very possibly fall so much short of the best Drills, as to dissappoint those who are acquainted with Them. Should it be so I hope to be excused for I have it not in my power to make a Comparison, haveing never seen the work of any other Drill but my own, nor indeed a Drill-Plow of any kind. It is in your power to determine whether this Contrivance is worth communicating to the World; should you think that it is, I beg the favour of you to do it for Me in the Way you think best. I have avoided giving the Dimensions of any Part, because it is not essential in any part of the Contrivance, and by multiplying words would lengthen and obscure the Description. No workman can be at a loss to know the proper size of the Parts to give the necessary Strength. I likewise think it quite needless to mention the manner of fixing the Parts together.
I have lately got the Annual Register for 1771. One of the first things I fell upon was the Abstracts from Mr. Kalms account of his Travels in America. I was much surprised with a wonderfull Story he tells from my Father, of a black Snake that attacked one of our Servants, for I never heard the Story in the Family, indeed the date he gives it is within my own Memory. My Father cannot immagine how Mr. Kalm came to father such a Story upon him, for as no such Thing ever happend in our Family, or to any one that he ever heard of, the Traveller could not have got it from him. However my surprise vanishd when in the next page I found him telling on his own knowledge that the Indians at Sir W. Johnsons could out run the swiftest Horses. And a Frog out run the Indians. I had two opportunities a Year or two agoe, of examining the black Snake facinating a Bird; of which Mr. Kalm does not omit some wonderfull Tales. In both the Cases which I saw, I found that the Bird was far from being in Love with the Snake, that She was doing her utmost to drive him away from her Nest, puting her own Life into his Jaws to save her young Brood. I calld several Persons to examine the first of these Encounters which I saw; they all agreed that the Bird must be enchantd but alterd their Opinion as soon as I shewd them the Nest and young Birds. I really beleive there is nothing more in all the Tales we are told of these Inchantments. I gave our worthy Friend Peter Collinson an account of what I had observed upon these occasions, some Time before he dyed.
My Father presents his Compliments to You. He longs to have your Remarks upon his Papers. He enjoys a great share of Health and surpriseing Spirits for a Man at 85. He has much more Strength now than he had two Years agoe.
I am

Endorsed: Decr. 8th. 1772 Drill Plow


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, [November? 1772]: extract
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Galloway, Joseph

[November? 1772]
I must now beg Leave to recommend to your Society Baron de Kliengstadt of Petersburg who has lately travelled thro’ England to collect Improvements in Husbandry &c. Being acquainted with him I took the Liberty of requesting his Care of our Book directed to the Academy of Sciences at Petersburg and I gave it to him open as he expressed a Curiosity to read it. He was so pleased with it and conceived so high an Opinion of the Society that he desired the Honor, as he politely expressed it, of being a Member, offered to correspond with the Society and send them from Time to Time any Information, Seeds or other things they might want from Russia.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Bache, 1 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Bache, Richard

Loving Son,
London, Dec. 1. 1772
I have received yours of Oct. 6 and 13. and Sally’s of Oct. 25. It rejoices me to hear that you are all well, and that Benja. is recovered of the Measles. I will write him a little print Letter, as soon as I hear that he can read Print.
Thanks to God, I am perfectly well at present, but being so far advanced in Life, I cannot expect a long Continuance of Health free from the usual Infirmities of Age.
The Mr. Coombes to whom you wrote, was burnt out a few Days before your Letter came to hand, but sav’d enough of his Stock to come within his Insurance. He will pay the Charge you mention, tho’ he has not yet.
I am pleas’d you follow’d the Advice of your Brother, relating to the Money due from Goddard; for tho’ I think with you that the Company is bound in Honour to make it good, I suppose there may be reasons for not making the Demand at present, which your Brother may be acquainted with tho’ I am not.
Mrs. Stevenson is pleas’d that her Care in procuring the Things for Sally, has given Satisfaction: and I am glad they proved agreable. My Love to your Wife and Son. If I hear that he continues a good Boy, I shall love him very much, and send him something by Capt. All. I am, my dear Children, Your affectionate Father
B F
Mr BacheDecemr Packet.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 1 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Franklin, Deborah

My dear Child
London, Dec. 1. 1772
I received yours of Oct. 14. and one without Date, which I suppose to be written since. Capts. All, Osborne, and Sparkes, are arrived; and a Barrel of Apples with another of Cranberries are come, I know not yet by which of them.
I am glad to hear you continue so well, and that the Pain in your Side and Head have left you. Eat light Foods, such as Fowls, Mutton, &c. and but little Beef or Bacon, avoid strong Tea, and use what Exercise you can; by these Means, you will preserve your Health better, and be less Subject to Lowness of Spirits.
It seems Polly Pitts is really dead. I suppose you know that we have a Mortgage on her Lotts. Mr. Galloway took it for me. You do not tell me whether any thing has been done about it; or whether any Interest was ever paid. Nor have you ever told me, whether Mr. Maugridge’s Executors have paid off his Mortgage to me, and that to the Insurance Office. I wish you would.
Give my Love to Mrs. Montgomery and all enquiring Friends. Mrs. Stevenson and Polly Hewson, and Sally Franklin present their Love, the latter adds her Duty. She is about to be married to a Farmer’s Son. I shall miss her, as she is nimble-footed and willing to run of Errands and wait upon me, and has been very serviceable to me for some Years, so that I have not kept a Man. I am ever, my dear Debby Your affectionate Husband
B F.

P.S. Have just opened the Apples and Cranberries, which I find in good order, all sound. Thanks for your kind Care in sending them.
Mrs Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Hughes, Jr., 1 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Hughes, John, Jr.

Dear Sir,
Dec. 1. 72
I received yours of Oct. 12. and in answer to your Enquiries acquaint you, that when I was in Ireland I went to the proper Office, and received the Information noted in red Ink on a Paper enclos’d; I then wrote the Letter of which I now send you the rough Draft, together with the Answer I received. I wrote also to the other Gentleman, but received no Answer. I am afraid there is little Expectation of obtaining any thing from Government here, and as little from the Drawers of the Bills: But of that you will judge on perusal of Mr. Grant’s Letter. I return also the Protests.
I am enclin’d to think the Land mention’d in your Father’s Will as what he was concern’d in with Baynton, Wharton & Co. is not that in which I propos’d to interest him; but another, by some Agreement between them before Mr. Wharton came over. For I think I have heard there was some such Agreement. And as I never received any Answer from him to my Proposal, I apprehend his Name has been omitted; but I shall enquire; and shall be glad if I can serve his Children in that or any other Affair, having no doubt of your carefully reimbursing me what I may advance for the Family. By my Accounts here, your Father was not in my Debt, but in Advance with me £4 2s. 0d. How the Account may stand in Philadelphia I know not.
Present my respectful Compliments to your Mother, with whom and all of you I condole sincerely, on the Loss of so valuable a Husband, Father and Friend. I am, with great Regard, Your most humble Servant
B F
Mr John Hughes, jun.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Alexander Colden, 2 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Colden, Alexander

Dear Sir,
London, Dec. 2. 1772
I duly received yours of Oct. 10. with the Accounts, accompanied by Bills of Exchange as follows,

Walker on Cunningham for
£82
11s.
5½d.

  R N. Colden on Meyrick for
400
  0s.
  0d.

  These from you as your Ballance
482
11s.
5½d.

And the following from Mr. Foxcroft as his Ballance, viz

Leitch on Buchanans
150
0s.
0d.

Dick & Steward on Buchanans
61
14s.
2d.

Walker on Cunningham
257
16s.
4d.

Turner on Barnes & Ridgate
72
7s.
5d.

Sandys on Sandys
15
0s.
0d.

Dunn on Long Drake & Long
100
0s.
0d.

Edlin on Molleson
20
0s.
0d.

Taylor on Perkins, Buchanan & Browne
15
0s.
0d.

Blair on Cunninghame
100
0s.
0d.

Belt on West & Hobson
  50
  0s.
  0d.

841
17s.
11d.

The Account of Bills remitted to me by Mr. Parker and yourself was right; but I should have had Credit for protested Bills return’d to him, viz

Bill on Cunningham & Co.
£20
0s.
0d.

  Charges
£1
5s.
8d.

  Do on Milligen
52
0s.
0d.

  Charges

  5s.
  9d.

  In all
73
11s.
5d.

And you will also give me Credit for Mackie on Molleson return’d to you protested per Packet Nov. 3. the Sum £294 5s. 2d.

I am now to tell you by Order of the Board that the Accounts are not regularly stated and render’d as usual, and therefore not satisfactory. All the Receipts are lump’d in one Sum, without particularizing how much from each Office, when receiv’d and by whom. It is therefore required and expected that you immediately make out and send the Accounts in that Form; together with a Copy of the separate Accounts as they stand in your Books with each Postmaster, all ballanced; that it may be seen how much is due from each, as well as what has been received from them. This is to be done directly for the Accounts to 1772. and the same is to accompany the Account for 1773, and so for every succeeding Year; each separate Office Account to commence with the Ballance of the preceding Year. I beg you will do this without Delay, as the Account is rejected at the Office, and I can make no Settlement, with the Office, nor the Office with the Treasury till it arrives. With my best Respects to your good Father, to Mr. and Mrs. Nicholls, and to Mrs. Colden, I am, with great Regard, Dear Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
Mr Colden


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 2 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Cushing, Thomas

The interview described in the first part of this letter involved Franklin further in the developing crisis in Massachusetts, and the enclosure he described in the second part inflamed that crisis and deeply affected the remainder of his English mission. The importance of the letter is obvious, and so are the problems that it raises.
The subject of the interview was a petition from the Massachusetts House against the crown’s paying the Governor’s salary, on the ground that the House controlled it as a matter of right. Franklin had presented the petition in November. The Secretary, in accepting it, had tacitly acknowledged what his predecessor had denied, the American’s position as agent of the House; but the document itself was scarcely designed to inaugurate an era of reconciliation under the new regime. Dartmouth faced a dilemma. The right claimed by the House was sure, he knew, to meet angry rejection, which would further heat the atmosphere in Massachusetts; yet his refusing to forward the claim would reinforce the colonists’ grievance that they were denied access to the throne. His solution was to delay, obviously in the hope that time would cool tempers in Boston, moderate open defiance, and so permit him to use his good offices. In the interview he agreed to transmit the petition if the agent insisted, but urged him to withhold it pending consultation with his constituents. Now that they had a friend in the American department, the Minister implied, they might change their tune. Franklin had little hope that they would, and said so; but in the end he reluctantly agreed.
The interview was a promising moment, it might seem, for two influential men of intelligence and good will, if they wanted reconciliation, to search together for possible means. But the search did not go far. Dartmouth, if he was quoted aright, advanced nothing immediately constructive; all he offered was delay, which would be constructive only if Massachusetts gave him room to maneuver. Franklin accepted the offer, which he clearly believed would not change his constituents’ stand, and stopped there. He could not have done more, it may be argued, without compromising his own stand. In January, writing to Cushing, he had opposed a royal salary for the Governor, and to Cooper he had explained why: only through financial control of the chief executive could the House prevent implementation of illegal instructions from the crown. When the agent first saw the petition, and found that the House claimed such control by constitutional right, he showed no sign of uneasiness. When he agreed to withhold the petition until it was reconsidered, he touched on the possibility that in doing so his constituents might wish, not to retreat from their claim, but to add to it all their other grievances. What he seems to have hoped was that they would be sufficiently mollified by Hillsborough’s removal to change the tone rather than the substance of their demands. He, like Dartmouth, was buying time. He had no way of knowing that the purchase would prove useless because the House, far from being mollified, was becoming still more intransigent.
His desire to lessen that intransigence was the motive he gave for sending the packet of correspondence that he enclosed with his letter. The motive has been impugned and defended from that day to this; his decision to forward the packet was probably the most controversial act of his career. What he sent were private letters written some years before by Thomas Hutchinson, Andrew Oliver, and others to a mutual friend in London, Thomas Whately. How he acquired the correspondence is a question still wrapped in mystery, and hence open to fascinating if inconclusive conjecture; so is the much more crucial question of why he sent it. The mystery is worth examining even if it cannot be solved, but first a sketch of the background.
Thomas Hutchinson and his wife’s brother-in-law, Andrew Oliver, were scions of distinguished Boston families and had long been prominent in the provincial government. Prominence did not mean popularity; neither one had held elective office for many years, and both had numerous enemies. At the time the letters were written, between 1767 and 1769, Oliver was secretary of Massachusetts and Hutchinson was chief justice and lieutenant governor. Oliver managed extensive local property of an English family related to Whately, and in this way got into correspondence with him. Hutchinson’s correspondence was probably arranged through the other Bostonian who figures largely in the affair, John Temple.
Temple has appeared frequently in earlier volumes, for he was an old acquaintance of Franklin and his son. He was also a distant relative of Earl Temple and his brother, George Grenville, and used this connection for all it was worth. In 1761 he was appointed Surveyor General of the Customs for the northern colonies, and soon afterward stretched his authority by appointing Timothy Folger customs collector of Nantucket. Folger was eventually dismissed. Temple married the daughter of James Bowdoin, Franklin’s old friend, and became as popular with the mercantile community as he was unpopular with his fellow officials. When he was named to the Board of Customs Commissioners in 1767, his bias toward the Americans outraged the other members; and his conduct was a theme of Hutchinson’s and Oliver’s letters. In 1770 Temple was recalled, and he arrived in England at a time when he could have purloined the letters.
So much for the chief American dramatis personae. The chief known protagonists in England, aside from Franklin himself, were George Grenville and Thomas Whately. Grenville, after having been the King’s first minister for the two fateful years that culminated in passage of the Stamp Act, became a leader of opposition until his death in 1770, and worked consistently against any policy that might be construed as surrender to colonial demands. His lieutenant, protégé, and confidant was Whately, an M.P. who during the years in power had been a secretary of the Treasury, and during the years of opposition was the manager and principal strategist of the Grenville faction in the House of Commons.
For any one who wished to maintain a firm line with the colonies, Hutchinson and Oliver were useful correspondents. Their letters were full of violence and threats of violence against royal officials in Boston, and hence were fuel for British resentment. The writers indicated that the members of the Board of Customs Commissioners, John Temple excepted, went in fear of their lives, and that public order was breaking down under pressure of the mob. Oliver argued in 1767 that royal officials must be paid by the crown, an argument that had already been accepted by the framers of the Townshend Acts; he also proposed altering the charter to create an order of patricians, from which the Council would be chosen. Hutchinson insisted that the only way to avert disaster was to remove government gradually from popular control, and to secure the dependence of the province at the cost, much as it pained him, of abridging “what are called English liberties”; for no distant colony could be so governed as to give its inhabitants the same liberty as those of the mother country. In general, although both men clearly wanted an uncompromising ministerial policy, they did not say what it should be. They viewed with alarm, as might be expected of conservatives in power and threatened by violence, and they waited hopefully for the administration to act. They did not, in short, instigate repressive measures, as Franklin says they did; they argued that such measures were necessary, but in these letters they did not specify any.
At some time after the beginning of 1770 a packet of the correspondence, perhaps a random sample, began the wanderings that brought it into Franklin’s hands. By the time it reached him Grenville and Whately had died, the first in November of 1770 and the second in June of 1772. Either man may have lent the letters to some one who failed to return them, or they may have disappeared after Whately’s death, when his papers came to his brother and executor, William Whately, a London banker. All that can be established is that they vanished, and that Franklin had them by the beginning of December, 1772; he always kept silent about when and from whom he obtained them. He sent the originals to Cushing, with strict injunctions against publicizing them. Whether or not he was naïf enough to believe that the injunctions would be respected, they were ignored; the letters were printed in Boston, and the recriminations began.
The man most strongly suspected, then and since, of having purloined the correspondence was John Temple. By the time he reached London from America, Grenville had died and left his papers—which may or may not have included the letters—to his brother and executor, Lord Temple; even a distant relative might have had access to them. If, on the other hand, the letters remained with Whately, John Temple also had access to them. He was frequently in touch with Thomas and, four months after his death, called on William Whately to look for correspondence of his own, and for a time was left alone with the papers. After the letters became a cause célèbre, word of this October visit got around. Temple and William Whately were under a cloud, each as a possible culprit, and in trying to exonerate themselves they quarreled publicly with one another. The result was a duel in December, 1773. At that point Franklin broke his silence. He announced in the press that he alone had obtained and transmitted the letters, that they had never been in William Whately’s possession, and that Temple therefore could not have taken them from him. Whately later sued Franklin in Chancery to force him to reveal how he had acquired them. Unfortunately for the historian, however, the defendant left the country before the suit was concluded, and little record of it remains.
This is all of the story that can be reconstructed with reasonable assurance. What little more Franklin had to say is not enlightening. The letters, according to him, were being handed about in England to discredit the colonists; but he apparently did not know of their existence until at some point he was in conversation with “a Gentleman of Character and Distinction,” who assured him that colonial grievances arose from policies proposed to the government “by some of the most respectable among the Americans themselves.” The gentleman, whom we shall have to call X, found Franklin incredulous, offered to convince him and through him his countrymen, and returned a few days later with the letters in question; eventually he consented to have the originals sent to Boston, on condition that they be kept from the public and that his name be concealed. Franklin’s only other significant statements were two: that Thomas Whately delivered the letters to some one; and that Grenville, “the Centre to which flow’d all the Correspondence inimical to America,” lent them to some one and died before they were returned, whereupon they started on their wanderings. If either statement is true, the some one could have been X, who showed the packet to a number of people before bringing it to Franklin. Or it could have been taken by a quite different person, who passed it on to another, so that it went through many hands before coming to Craven Street; in that case X need not have had any connection with Grenville or Whately, or any opportunity to get at the papers of either one.
Motive, rather than opportunity, may give some ground for conjecturing X’s identity. Two possible motives come to mind, a dislike of Hutchinson and a desire, if Franklin is to be believed, to demonstrate that some of the most respectable Americans had asked for and obtained the measures, now branded as grievances, that they considered necessary for the welfare of the colonies. Any one familiar with the situation in Boston must have known that the letters would arouse particular fury against the Governor. If that was X’s purpose, he may have intended his ban on publication to be ignored, as it was. But who in England had reason for such an attack? Certainly John Temple, who blamed his dismissal from the customs post on Hutchinson; Temple knew Boston, and Franklin knew him. Thomas Pownall seems at first glance to be another possibility, because he had ambitions to return to his former governorship. He was on good terms with leaders in Boston, and on good enough terms with the ministry to be a candidate for the position if it fell vacant. But he must have known that undermining the incumbent’s position in Massachusetts might well strengthen it in Whitehall, where governors were made and unmade, and hence was no sure way to create the vacancy; ambition gave Pownall at best a questionable motive for acting as X did. The search for that faceless person among Hutchinson’s possible ill-wishers turns up nothing conclusive.
X’s desire to put the onus of past British policy on American shoulders reveals little about his motives. He may have been trying to exculpate the Pitt—Grafton administration and smooth the path of the present one by diverting colonial bitterness elsewhere; he may equally well have realized that he was stirring up more trouble. But in either case why the strict injunction to keep his name secret? If he purloined the letters, he had every reason to conceal his part in the affair. If he came by them honestly, he was perhaps so situated that he could not afford to have the part known. All that can reasonably be conjectured about him is that he was less oblivious than the Grenvillites to American opinion, and that he had a guilty conscience or a delicate position or both. These supposititious clues do not identify him, but they do invite further speculation.
Temple again is a strong candidate. He was bitter against Hutchinson, and presumably against the North administration because it had recalled him. But it had also reimbursed him with an English customs post; he was therefore a placeman who, if his taking the letters should ever transpire, stood to be ruined again. No one else is known to have had such a good opportunity for taking them, and he fulfills our other conjectural criteria for X.
Another candidate, intriguing though less likely, is William Strahan. In late 1769 and early 1770 he was doing what he could to circulate Franklin’s statement on the colonial question among politicians in London. Assume for the moment that one of them was Grenville, whom Strahan respected as a pillar of the opposition; assume that the former minister responded to Franklin’s views by insisting that the Bostonians must be brought to heel because they were defying all authority, and by giving Strahan the letters to prove his point. Such assumptions droop without support, and here there is only a little. In the early months of 1770 Strahan spoke of accounts from America that were working against conciliation, and commented on the difference between Franklin’s and his opinions and sources of information; what his own sources were he did not say. We have no evidence that the two men were in close touch again until August, 1772, when they apparently met at least twice within a few days. These could have been the two crucial meetings that Franklin, according to his story, had with X: at the first the conversation ranged over the colonial issue, and at the second the letters changed hands.
  But at that point conjecture runs into difficulties. If Strahan produced the packet, why did he do it then? Dartmouth had just succeeded Hillsborough, and the hope of reconciliation was brightening; also the ambitions of the Walpole Company, in which Strahan was involved, seemed about to be realized. Why did he not let well enough alone?
The answer may lie partly in his political views and partly in his character. His position on the colonial question was between Franklin’s and the Grenvillites’: although he consistently supported the principle of Parliamentary taxation, he had favored partial repeal of the Townshend duties. In 1771 he had concocted a plan for Anglo-American union, to be presented to those in power; he boasted of knowing “some of our Great Men, who are in the Secret of Affairs.” He had, as this suggests, a high if unwarranted opinion of his political connections, and preened himself on his sources of information. If he told Franklin that British policy had been based on advice of prominent Americans, and was challenged for proof, he might well have produced it without weighing the consequences for any one but himself. A pledge to keep his name secret would have been a natural precaution, not so much because of his conscience—he could be cavalier about private letters—as because of his position: a printer doing business with the government was open to reprisals. He may even have taken the further precaution of securing the pledge in writing, for in later years he is said to have had in his possession an extract in Franklin’s hand of this letter to Cushing. But hearsay and supposition add up to nothing more than a possibility. The secret that Franklin kept is still as safe as it was with him; X, like Junius, remains unknown.
The question of his identity is much less important than the question of why Franklin sent the letters. The reasons that he gave are clear enough: his resentment of the British government decreased, he said, on discovering that its policies had been instigated by Americans; and he assumed that the discovery would have the same effect on his Boston friends. His aim was to reconcile them to the mother country, in short, at Hutchinson’s and Oliver’s expense. But if this was his real aim he was not thinking clearly. He knew, and had a petition from the House of Representatives to prove it, that the Governor was at loggerheads with the legislature because he had followed instructions from Whitehall. Directing anger at him, as instigator of the policies behind the instructions, could not conceivably divert it from the government that had made those policies its own, but could only exacerbate the quarrel. Franklin admitted as much later. He had been glad to accept X’s condition of keeping the letters secret, he said, because he feared that publishing them would produce violence in Massachusetts. That fear runs counter to his claim, to which he consistently adhered, that he was hoping to improve Anglo-American relations.
He later added another point that must be taken into account. Disclosing the letters gave the government the chance to seek reconciliation, he asserted, by laying the blame for the quarrel where it belonged, on the writers, and shifting to a more liberal policy; but Whitehall ignored the opportunity. The furor against Hutchinson and Oliver, in other words, could and should have led to their replacement by more conciliatory officials backed by a more conciliatory minister. Dartmouth seemed ready to inaugurate a new era if given an opening, which Franklin may have believed that he was providing. In that case, however, his miscalculation was spectacular, and does small credit to his acumen.
If the promotion of harmony is ruled out as an implausible motive, Franklin’s relationship with his constituents remains. Their increasing opposition to royal authority was revealed in their petition, which the interview he describes with Dartmouth had just dissuaded him from presenting; and that opposition must have disturbed him because it threatened his concept of the empire. In an unreflecting moment he may really have believed that he could improve the situation by shifting the focus of argument from theories to personalities. About the former he was not yet fully decided; about the latter he was. His anger at the writers, if it was as genuine as it seems, doubtless made their exposure appear to be a service to Massachusetts.
At that particular moment such a service was timely, for his handling of the petition laid him open to criticism in Boston. He had earlier castigated his predecessor, Dennys DeBerdt, for delay in presenting a petition. Now he himself was not only delaying one but referring it back, at Dartmouth’s behest, for reconsideration. His announcement to Cushing that he had reluctantly agreed to do so was followed immediately by his announcement of the letters. This juxtaposition may have been more than coincidence, or it may not. All we know of his reasons for sending the correspondence is what he tells us, and that may be interpreted as anything between deception or self-deception at one extreme and the truth at the other. The verdict of history may perhaps be the one that John Dryden gave on another controversial episode:
Succeeding times did equal folly call
Believing nothing or believing all.

Sir,
London, Dec. 2. 1772
The above is a Copy of my last, and no Ship has since sailed for Boston. A few Days after my leaving your Petition with Lord Dartmouth, his Lordship sent for me to discourse with me upon it. After a long Audience he was pleas’d to say, That notwithstanding all I had said or that could be said in Support of the Petition, he was sure the Presenting it at this time could not possibly produce any Good; That the King would be exceedingly offended, but what Steps he would take upon it was uncertain; perhaps he would require the Opinion of the Judges or Government Lawyers, which would surely be against us; perhaps he might lay it before Parliament, and so the Censure of both Houses would be drawn down upon us; the most favourable thing to be expected was, a severe Reprimand to the Assembly by Order of his Majesty; the natural Consequence of which must be, more Discontent and Uneasiness in the Province. That possess’d as he was with great Good-will for New-England, he was extreamly unwilling that one of the first Acts of his Administration with regard to the Massachusetts should be of so unpleasant a nature: That Minds had been heated and irritated on both sides the Water, but he hoped those Heats were now cooling, and he was averse to any Addition of fresh Fuel: That as I had delivered the Petition to him officially, he must present it if I insisted upon it; but he wished I would first consult my Constituents, who might possibly on Reconsideration think fit to order its being deferred. I answered, that the great Majority with which the Petition, and the Resolves on which it was founded, were carried thro’ the House, made it scarce expectable that their Order would be countermanded; that the slighting, evading or refusing to receive Petitions from the Colonies on some late Occasions by the Parliament, had occasioned a total Loss of the Respect for and Confidence in that Body, formerly subsisting so strongly in America, and brought on a Questioning of their Authority: That his Lordship might observe, Petitions came no more from thence to Parliament, but to the King only; That the King appeared to be now the only Connection between the two Countries; and that, as a continued Union was essentially necessary to the Well-being of the whole Empire, I should be sorry to see that Link weakened as the other had been: That I thought it a dangerous thing for any Government to refuse receiving Petitions, and thereby prevent the Subjects from giving Vent to their Griefs. His Lordship interrupted me by replying, that he did not refuse to deliver the Petition; that it should never be justly said of him that he intercepted the Complaints of his Majesty’s Subjects, and that he must and would present it, as he had said before, whenever I should absolutely require it; but from Motives of pure Good will to the Province, he only wish’d me not to insist on it, ’till I should receive fresh Orders. Finally, considering that since the Petition was ordered, there has been a Change in the American Administration; that the present Minister was our Friend in the Repeal of the Stamp-Act, and seems still to have good Dispositions towards us; that you had mention’d to me the Probability that the House would have remonstrated on all their other Grievances, had not their Time been taken up with the difficult Business of a general Valuation; and, since the Complaint of this Petition alone was likely to give Offence, it might perhaps be judg’d adviseable to give the Offence of all our Complaints at once, rather than in Parts and after a Reprimand received; I say, upon the whole I thought it best not to disoblige him in the Beginning of his Administration, by refusing him what he seem’d so desirous of, a Delay at least in presenting the Petition, till farther Directions should be received from my Constituents. If after Deliberation they should send me fresh Orders, I shall immediately obey them: And the Application itself may possibly derive greater Weight from the Reconsideration given it, while the Temper of the House may be thought somewhat calmed by the Removal of a Minister who had render’d himself so obnoxious to them. Accordingly I consented to the Delay desired, wherein I hope my Conduct will not be disapproved.
On this Occasion I think it fit to acquaint you that there has lately fallen into my Hands Part of a Correspondence, that I have reason to believe laid the Foundation of most if not all our present Grievances. I am not at liberty to tell thro’ what Channel I receiv’d it; and I have engag’d that it shall not be printed, nor any Copies taken of the whole or any part of it; but I am allow’d and desired to let it be seen by some Men of Worth in the Province for their Satisfaction only. In confidence of your preserving inviolably my Engagement, I send you enclos’d the original Letters, to obviate every Pretence of Unfairness in Copying, Interpolation or Omission. The Hands of the Gentlemen will be well known. Possibly they may not like such an Exposal of their Conduct, however tenderly and privately it may be managed. But if they are good Men, and agree that all good Men wish a good Understanding and Harmony to subsist between the Colonies and their Mother Country, they ought the less to regret, that at the small Expence of their Reputation for Sincerity and Publick Spirit among their Compatriots, so desirable an Event may in some degree be forwarded. For my own Part, I cannot but acknowledge, that my Resentment against this Country, for its arbitrary Measures in governing us, conducted by the late Minister, has, since my Conviction by these Papers, that those Measures were projected, advised and called for by Men of Character among ourselves, and whose Advice must therefore be attended with all the Weight that was proper to mislead, and which could therefore scarce fail of Misleading; my own Resentment, I say, has by this means been considerably abated. I therefore wish I was at Liberty to make the Letters publick; but as I am not, I can only allow them to be seen by yourself, by the other Gentlemen of the Committee of Correspondence, by Messrs. Bowdoin, and Pitts, of the Council, and Drs. Chauncey, Cooper and Winthrop, with a few such other Gentlemen as you may think it fit to show them to. After being some Months in your Possession, you are requested to return them to me.
As to the Writers, I can easily as well as charitably conceive it possible, that a Man educated in Prepossessions of the unbounded Authority of Parliament, &c. may think unjustifiable every Opposition even to its unconstitutional Exertions, and imagine it their Duty to suppress, as much as in them lies, such Opposition. But when I find them bartering away the Liberties of their native Country for Posts, and negociating for Salaries and Pensions, for which the Money is to be squeezed from the People; and, conscious of the Odium these might be attended with, calling for Troops to protect and secure the Enjoyment of them; when I see them exciting Jealousies in the Crown, and provoking it to Wrath against a great Part of its faithful Subjects; creating Enmities between the different Countries of which the Empire consists; occasioning a great Expence to the new Country for the Payment of needless Gratifications to useless Officers and Enemies; and to the old for Suppressing or Preventing imaginary Rebellions in the new; I cannot but doubt their Sincerity even in the political Principles they profess; and deem them mere Time-servers, seeking their own private Emolument thro’ any Quantity of Publick Mischief; Betrayers of the Interest, not of their Native Country only, but of the Government they pretend to serve, and of the whole English Empire. With the greatest Esteem and Respect, I have the Honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwalader Evans, 2 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Evans, Cadwalader

Dear Doctor,
London, Dec. 2. 1772
I am much concern’d to hear of your Illness, and hope that long before this time you have been able to execute your Intentions of Riding, and have recovered your usual Health and Vigour.
I received your Favour of Oct 21. with the Bill enclos’d drawn by Order of the Managers for promoting the Culture of Silk, on me, for £152 0s. 9d. in favour of James & Drinker and yourself: and am glad the Purchase I made was satisfactory. As this Sum exceeds my Disbursement, the Overplus will wait your Orders; and particularly I wish to have Directions what I am to pay Mr. Wheeler for his Diligence and Trouble in the Transaction, which really was considerable.
The Truss was sent; I am vex’d that it did not come to hand, and must enquire what became of it. With great Esteem, I am ever, my dear Friend, Yours most affectionately
B Franklin
Dr Cadr Evans

Addressed: To / Dr Cadwalader Evans / Philadelphia / viâ N York / per Packet / B Free Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Foxcroft, 2 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Foxcroft, John

Dear Friend,
London, Dec. 2. 1772
I am sorry to acquaint you that the Account Mr. Colden sent over from New York by the Octr Packet is look’d upon at the Office as no Account at all, the Receipts being lump’d in one Article of £5649 2s. 3½d. without any State of the Accounts of the several Offices to support that Article. It is therefore rejected, and I can make no Settlement till you send it me in the usual Form, viz. giving Credit to G.P.O. for every separate Sum receiv’d and of what Office, and accompanying the General Account with a Book of the particular Accounts as they stand between the several Offices and the American G P Office stated clearly as they stand in the Comptroller’s Book, and ballanced. To do this, it is not necessary to wait till every Officer has remitted his Ballance. It is enough to show what was due from him when the Accounts were made up. I wrote to you on this Head about the Middle of last Month, and to day Mr. Todd call’d on me, and earnestly desired I would urge it on you, for no Account can be settled by me, or render’d to Government by the Office, till this arrives. And I wonder at its being omitted, since it has always been the Practice. By a Letter Mr. Todd show’d me, dated Nov. 4. from Mr. Colden, he seems sensible that the Account he render’d was imperfect; for he excuses him self by saying, that he had no Precedent to show him how the Accounts had been heretofore stated, and that he therefore followed your Direction, you having assur’d him that was the usual Form, which Mr. Todd wonder’d at. I beg therefore that you would immediately urge him to get them done and send them over in the manner mentioned.
The Account of Bills charg’d to me is very right; excepting that I had no Credit for two return’d to Parker protested, but I had overpaid into the Office before the Accounts arrived, supposing I should have been charged with what the Philadelphia Office has paid on my Account to Mrs. Franklin. Full Credit is given me for my Salary, and no mention of those Payments. Perhaps you have taken them into your private Account with me, by Way of discharging what I overpaid you here; but you mention nothing of it. Will you not take it amiss if I once more mention that I am uneasy at the long continuance of that Account unadjusted?
I congratulate you most cordially on the Allowance now made you of £100 a Year for House Rent in New York; and on Mr. Finlay’s Appointment as Riding Surveyor (which you seem’d to desire) with a Salary of £200 a Year, and an Allowance to continue in his Quebec Office besides. He goes over in the Feby Packet and will immediately enter on Business: So that I now hope all will soon be in good Order. But pray don’t let the Accounts wait for him. I can now only add my best Wishes of Happiness to you and Yours, from Dear Friend, Yours most affectionately
B Franklin
Mr Foxcroft


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Foxcroft, 2 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Foxcroft, Thomas

Dear Sir,
London, Dec. 2. 1772
I received yours of Oct. 23. with Invoice and Bill of Lading for the Bread and Flour you shipt per Osborne, and am much oblig’d by your Care in procuring and sending it so readily. I hope you have recovered your Health. Present my best Respects to your good Brother and Sister, and believe me with sincere Regard, Your most obedient humble Servant
B F.
Mr Thos. Foxcroft,


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 2 December 1772
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Franklin, William

Dear Son,
London, Dec. 2, 1772
I have received yours of Oct. 4. 8. and 13. I cannot imagine what became of my Letter of Augt. 3. from May Place. It was however of no great Importance. Mr. Denormandie is gone this Day to Geneva. I gave him a Letter of Recommendation to a Friend there.
I am persuaded that your Packets were not open’d at the Office; for tho’ a Secretary of State has the Power of ordering Letters to be opened, I think it is seldom used but in times of War, Rebellion, or on some great publick Occasion; and I have heard they have Means of copying the Seal so exactly, as that it cannot be discovered that the Letters have been look’d into. It is plain therefore, that whoever rubb’d your Packets open, had not the Use of such Means. And yet as you are satisfy’d it was not done on your side the Water, I suspect the Letter Carrier might be corrupted and the Business done between the Office in Lombard Street and my House. When a Packet arrives, a special Messenger goes directly from the Office with the publick Letters, before the Sorting is finished. Mine have been sometimes sent by the same Messenger, who call’d on me in his Way to Lord H.’s and sometimes in his Return. And as he told Mr. Strahan that his Letters to you were often return’d to me from America, and yours to him sent thro’ my Hands, to be seen he suppos’d by me before Delivery; and since his Resignation your Packets do not appear to have suffered the least Violation, I fancy the Rubbing them open may possibly have been the Ingenuity of Mr. Secry. Knox. By the List you have sent me I find none of the Papers missing. Another Circumstance in favour of this Opinion is, that no Letters to me were thus abused but yours and those from the Assembly of Boston. This I think clears the Person you suspected, and rather fixes the above Conjecture.
I have not seen your Speech at the Opening of your last Session: but I hear it has been commended by the Ministry.
I return Mr. Foxcroft’s Letters as you desire. I make no Remarks on the Reports he mentions. I know not who is meant by the Hero of your Speech. Nor will I say more at present of the Ohio Affair, than that it is not yet quite secure, and therefore I still advise Discretion in speaking of it.
Dr. Price has been so good as to give me his Opinion of your Scheme, which I send; hoping it may be of Use. I suppose you have his Book, referr’d to in the Paper. Some Acknowledgement or Thanks should be sent him for the Trouble he has taken.
I continue very well, Thanks to God. On Monday last, I was chosen into the Council of the Royal Society for the 4th time. Our Friend Sir John Pringle was elected President, which is very agreable to him.
I shall send you a Tea Urn by the first Ship.
Just now comes to hand yours of Nov. 3. whereby I find mine of Aug. 3. is received. I am glad to learn that you and your neighbouring Governors are so sociable. I shall communicate what you write about the Virginia Grants. At present I can only add that I am, with Love to Betsey, Your ever affectionate Father
B Franklin