Title: Two Letters from Giambatista Beccaria, [after 11 August 1773]
From: Beccaria, Giambatista
To: Franklin, Benjamin

These letters were drafted in reply to Franklin’s of August 11, the preceding document, and were completed at some time between receipt of that letter and early March, 1774. Whether Beccaria sent them in draft is not clear, but only the drafts survive; and they pose an editorial problem. His earlier letters to Franklin, which have been variously handled in preceding volumes, were by comparison finished productions and yet, as the editors’ comments indicate, were far from clear. The Italian’s convoluted prose is hard to follow even at its best, and electrical disquisitions, as contemporaries complained, turn it into virtually a language of its own. A literal translation would be gibberish. A free one is dangerous, even when supplemented by the original text; but we can see no alternative to an English rendering that takes liberty with the Italian in order to convey what we believe Beccaria meant. If we are sometimes mistaken, despite expert assistance, we share the blame with the author.

    Chiarissimo, e onoratissimo Signore Padrone mio singolarissimo,
    Il Signor Fremond mi ha addimandato a vostro nome, se io avea il Tentamen di Epino. Io ho primamente ricevuto tale Libro dal Sig. Sausseure Filosofo genevrino nel 1772, quando stava stampando L’ultimo Libro; nè allora Lo lessi, perchè io era occupatissimo, e mi fidava dell’istoria del Sig. Priestley; solamente giunto a stampare il num. 453 del libro, ovè tratto del esperienza di Richman intorno a’fili annessi ad una Lastra, La cercai in Epino; e fui sorpresso di trovarla in Epino piàplicata, che non è in Priestley, per quanto mi parve allora; che fra le altre cose non intesi, che Epino per la parola catena intendea la communicazione di una faccia della Lastra col suolo.
Ora solo La dimanda del Sig. Fremond mi ha eccitata curiosità sicchè disgiunto le carte del libro di Epino, e lo ho scorso; e universalmente vi ho trovato molto ingegno, e la sorgente vi ho divisata dell’ Ipotesi Geometrica coltivata poi, e migliorata di molto dal Sig. Cavendisch. La chiamo Ipotesi geometrica, perchè a me pare, che non adegui i fenomeni fisici, e che da essi prescinda almanco in parte sollecita unicamente di misurare.
Considerata poi piàentamente la esperienza del Richman, trovo che essa non differisce dalla mia, sè non perchè in quella l’atmosfera della faccia caricata non si dovea estendere alla faccia opposta della Lastra. Epperò io stimereii bene di aggiungere La seguente nota alla parola imperfettissima del sopradetto num: 453.
“Considerata meglio questa sperienza, vedo, che a me riesce piàplicata, perchè l’atmosfera della faccia caricata si estende alla faccia opposta della lastra; che la mia posta talle circostanza è vera; e che tolta tale circostanza, è anche vera quella del Richman.
“Annetto alla stremitàel conduttore l’uncino A d’una boccia ABCDE di lunghissimo collo (Tav. VI; fig. 5); che cosi niuna estrania atmosfera si estende alla pancia della boccia. Poi annetto un elettroscopio al conduttore, che vale il filo annesso da Richman alla faccia caricata della Lamina, e ne annetto un altro all’ armatura esteriore della boccia, che vale il filo annesso da richman alla faccia opposta.
“Allora impugnando io La pancia della boccia, e caricandola vedo, che insorge e cresce la divergenza per eccesso dell’elettroscopio annesso al conduttore per l’eccesso, che ringorga dalla faccia interna della boccia. Nè in tanto si move punto l’elettroscopio annesso alla pancia della boccia, perchè e comunica col suolo, e ad esso non si estende niuna estrania atmosfera.
“Compita la carica, e intralasciato lo stropicciamento del vetro, assai rapidamente insorge la divergenza dell’ elettroscopio annesso alla boccia e scema la divergenza dell’ elettroscopio annesso al conduttore; e si le due divergenze mirano all’egualità. Perchè tolta la forza attuante La carica, le elettricitàontrarie scemano, e mirano all’egualitàon forza proporzionata alla carica indotta; epperò scagliando del fuoco suo l’interna faccia della boccia, e si spingendone via il fuoco del conduttore scema la divergenza dell’ elettroscopio di questo; E traendo del fuoco da ogni parte la faccia esterna, epperò anche dall’elettroscopio annesso, insorge in questo la divergenza.

“Che poi abbandonando a se la boccia le due divergenze scemando restino equali, ciò avviene conformemente alla equalità, a cui mirano le due contrarie elettricità.
“Che toccando alternativamente le pancia della boccia, e il conduttore, alternativamente si abbatta, e insorga (o anche cresca) la divergenza degli elettroscopii, ciò si è spiegato trattando della scarica per alternazione.”
Questa nota, io dicea, mi pare conveniente; ma poi mi pare affatto necessario il cambiamento del penultimo num: 992 del libro, il quale principia: del che la ragione elle è Bisogna che io vaneggiassi quando lo ho scritto; tanto lo trovo scipito. Ecco come mi pare, che debba essere.
992. [In the margin: numeri da sostituirsi] Ed io opino, che questa particolaritàella elettricitàindice negativa della Lastra sola si dicchiari con la seguente considerazione: Che la superioritàcui abbia la elettricitàn una faccia del corpo isolante sopra la elettricitàella faccia opposta, ha efficacia a far comparire la omologa in essa faccia opposta (quella superioritàico ha questa efficacia) proporzionata alla grandezza sua direttamente, e alla carica attuale del corpo inversamente.
Appicco un elettroscopio al conduttore, e uno all’armatura esteriore d’una boccia di lunghissimo collo (Tav: VI, fig. 5.) sicchè l’atmosfera del conduttore non giunga a disturbare l’elettroscopio della boccia; e trovo, che, se stropiccio per pochi momenti il vetro lasciando isolata la boccia, ciò basta perchè l’elettroscopio della boccia acquisti una grande divergenza per eccesso, e la ritenga lungamente. Perchè la carica è nulla, e la superiorita dell’eccesso interiore è grande.
Ma se seguo a stropicciare il vetro, e vo eccitando delle scintille dall’ armatura esteriore della boccia, in verità’elettroscopio segue a ripigliare alcuna divergenza per eccesso, ma la ripiglia ognora minore, e ognora meno rapidamente. Perchè la carica diviene ognora maggiore, e la superioritàcui ha il totale eccesso interno sopra il totale difetto esterno è ognora minore.
Se repplico la sperienza; ma dopo l’eccitamento di ogni scintilla intralascio di stropicciare, la divergenza per eccesso si volge, in tale intervallo, in divergenza per diffetto tanto maggiore, e tanto piàsto, quanto è maggiore il numero delle scintille giàstratte; vale a dire quanto è maggiore la carica giàndotta, e quanto resta minore la superioritàell’eccesso interiore sopra il totale esteriore difetto.
Le cose consentanee accadono nella elettricitàindice universalmente. Quando disgiungo le due lastre AB ab, MN mn (tav: XI, fig. 4) di fresco scaricate, allora nella faccia esteriore di ciascuna appare molto vivace e molto durevole la elettricitàmologa a quella, cui per la elettricitàindice positiva ripiglia la faccia interiore. I Perchè le due lastre appunto sono scaricate; II E perchè le facce interiori ripigliano elettricitàolto vivaci, cospirando l’eccesso insorgente in MN ad avvalorare il difetto insorgente in ab; e reciprocamente.
Quando ignudo una faccia della lastra sola AB ab (Tav: XI, fig, 1.) similmente scaricata di fresco,

  Translation
[After Aug. 11, 1773]
Most illustrious and honored Sir, my most particular Master
Signor Fromond asked me from you whether I had Aepinus’ Tentamen. I received the book from Signor Saussure, the Genevan philosopher, in 1772 when I was publishing my latest work; and, because I was extremely busy then, I did not read it but relied upon Signor Priestley’s history. Only when I came to paragraph 453 of my book, where I discuss Richmann’s experiment with the wires attached to a plate, did I look for it in Aepinus; where I was surprised to find it more complicated, it seemed to me at the time, than in Priestley, because among other things I did not understand that Aepinus meant by “chain” the connection between one face of the plate and the ground.
Only now has Signor Fromond’s question roused my curiosity, so that I have opened the pages of Aepinus’ work and gone through it. And I have in general found great talent in it, and recognized there the source of the geometric hypothesis that Mr. Cavendish later developed and greatly improved. I call it geometric hypothesis because it is solely concerned with measurement and dose not, in my opinion, take physical phenomena into account but to a large degree disregards them.
When I later considered Richmann’s experiment more carefully, I discovered that it differed from mine only in that the atmosphere of the charged face did not extend to the opposite face of the plate. Hence I should think that the following note might usefully be appended to the words most imperfect in the aforementioned paragraph 453:
“A closer look at that experiment shows me that mine is more complicated, because the atmosphere of the charged face extends to the opposite face of the plate. Given that condition, mine is valid; without that condition, Richmann’s is also valid.
“I connect the hook, A, of a bottle with a very long neck, ABCDE, to the end of the conductor (Plate VI, fig. 5) so that no extraneous atmosphere reaches the interior of the bottle. Then I connect the conductor to an electroscope, which corresponds to the wire Richmann attached to the charged face of the plate, and the outer surface of the bottle to another electroscope, which corresponds to the wire Richmann attached to the opposite face.
“Afterward, as I hold and charge the body of the bottle, I observe that the electroscope connected with the conductor diverges increasingly because of the surplus that flows from the internal surface of the bottle. Meanwhile the electroscope connected with the outer surface does not move at all, both because it communicates with the ground and because no extraneous atmosphere reaches it.
“Once the charging is done and the rubbing discontinued, the divergence of the electroscope connected with the bottle rises extremely fast, and that of the electroscope connected with the conductor diminishes, so that the two tend to equalize. For, once the force producing the charge is removed, the contrary electricities diminish and tend to equalize, with a force commensurate with the induced charge. As the inner face of the bottle projects some of its fire and repels that of the conductor, therefore, the divergence of the latter’s electroscope decreases; and as the outer face loses fire, including that of the connected electroscope, the divergence in the latter rises.
“When the bottle is left to itself the two divergences diminish to the equality to which the two contrary electricities tend.
“Touching the body of the bottle and the conductor in alternation decreases and increases the divergence of the electroscopes. This has been explained in discussing the discharge by alternation.”
This note, as I said, seems to me appropriate. But then a change is needed, in my opinion, in the next to last paragraph, 992, which begins “The reason for this is.” I must have been out of my mind when I wrote it, so senseless does it appear to me. Here is how I think it ought to read:
“992. And this peculiarity of the plate’s negative vindicating electricity is, I believe, explained by the following consideration: that the imbalance between the electricity on one face of the insulating body and that on the other face has the effect (I mean the imbalance has this effect) of producing a correspondence in that other face that is directly proportionate to the amount [of the imbalance] and inversely proportionate to the body’s actual charge.
“I connect an electroscope with the conductor and another with the outer surface of a bottle with a very long neck (Plate VI, fig. 5), so that the conductor’s atmosphere does not disturb the bottle’s electroscope. If I rub the glass for a moment, leaving the bottle insulated, this is enough to give the bottle’s electroscope a large divergence by surplus, which it retains a long time. For there is no charge, and the internal surplus is great.
“But, if I go on rubbing the glass and exciting sparks from the bottle’s exernal surface, the electroscope continues to pick up some divergence by surplus, but less and less of it and more and more slowly. For the charge keeps growing, and the imbalance between the total inner surplus and the total outer deficiency grows steadily less.
“If I repeat the experiment but stop rubbing after I have excited each spark, in the intervals [between them] the divergence by surplus becomes divergence by deficiency, at a speed depending on the size and frequency of the sparks obtained, in other words on the size of the induced charge and the degree of imbalance between the inner surplus and the outer deficiency.
“Corresponding phenomena invariably occur in vindicating electricity. When I disconnect the two freshly discharged plates AB ab, MN mn (Plate XI, fig. 4), the electricity on the outer face of each, corresponding to the positive vindicating electricity that the inner face acquires, appears very lively and enduring (1) because the two plates are discharged and (2) because the inner faces acquire very lively electricities as the increasing surplus in MN stimulates the rising deficiency in ab and vice versa.
“When I uncover a single surface of the AB ab plate (Plate XI, fig. 1), likewise freshly discharged [remainder missing].”

Chiarissimo, e Onoratissimo Signore, Padrone mio singolare,
Dopo che mi avete fatto addimandare di Epino, io Lo ho riletto anche la seconda volta, e oltre all’avervi inteso, come giài ho scritto, Lo sperimento di Richman, ho notato particolarmente.
I. Che Epino conoscea, che non v’ha movimento tra’ corpi uno elettrizzato L’altro no. Epper🳯cca ad Epino questa determinazione, cui io attribuiva a me ne’ fogli dell’atmosfera elettrica.
II. Che Epino ha addotto alcuno sperimento dell’Elettricitàindice; v[erbi] g[ratia] di stropicciare una contro L’altra due Lastre guernite di manico isolatore, le quali congiunte non segnano niuna elettricitàdisgiunte segnano elettricitàontrarie. Probabilmente questa sperienza Epino La ha tratta dalla sperienza di Pekino, cui ho addotta nelle sperienze dell’elettricitàindice.
III. Mi è poi piaciuta singolarmente La teoria magnetica Epiniana massime intorno al punto, che il magnetismo s’induce confacentemente alla posizione, cui hanno al sistema magnetic terrestre i corpi, che ne sono capaci. Il magnetismo indotto colla scintilla vi consente.
Universalmente poi l’opera di Epino mi è paruta molto degna. Ma la memoria del Sigr. Cawendisk mi pare superiore massime nel ridurre il valore dell’azione elettrica alla ragione inversa de’quadrati delle distanze molto prossimamente, e nel ridure conseguentemente le elettricitàlle facce de’ corpi.
Ma sinceramente, come io ho giàcritto, non so arrestarmi nella pura attrazione e ripulsione nella parte, che risguarda i fenomeni elettrici derivativi. Il vedere l’atmosfera elettrica, che dalla faccia sovrana del vostro quadro si va grado grado estendendo, e si ripiega sotto a’ margini nudi, e successivamente ne va occupando anche la parte armata dell’inferiore faccia, ed altre si fatte infinite sperienze, mi astringono a riserbare v[erbi] g[ratia] La ripulsione per La forza primitiva del fuoco elettrico.
Un amico mi ha fatto vedere l’articolo XVII dell’appendix to the montly review volume forty seventh pag. 552. Bramerei, che gli deste un’occhiata. La mia vanitài avea voluto persuadere, che a dettare tale articolo abbia avuto parte la gelosia della plebbe, e che La menzogna vi sia entrata per qualche cosa.
Ho letto con piacere gli elogi, che Priestley dàll’elettrometro di Elsmey. Ne ho costrutto uno doppio per ogni modo. I. ABCDE, abcde sono due cartoncini, la figura de’ quali risulta da un rettangolo ACDF, e da due semicerchi ABC, FED. II. Essi cartoncini sono annessi alla sommitàella colonnetta GH sicchè restano paralleli, e distanti alcune linee uno dall’altro. III. La Testa G della colonnetta porta un capelletto di ottone, che regge due fini e mobilissimi perni corrispondenti a’centri v, ed v de’ semicerchi. IV. A’ perni sono annessi i pendoli VP, vp, &c.
Eccone i vantaggi. I. Tra due piani vicini non si dispiega niuna elettricitàe quelle che si dispiegano attorno a’ margini si vogliono supporre eguali. Epperò il movimento de’ pendoli non è disturbato dalla forza dell’elettricitàispiegantesi dall’unico piano di Elsmey; la quale forza mira ad allontanare il pendolo normalmente dal piano; mentre la forza, che ne dee dare la misura mira a muoverlo parallelamente al piano medesimo. II. Uso due pendoli; perchè il confronto delle loro divergenze mi serve di guida a situare l’elettrometro in modo, che sia menomamente disturbato da’ corpi aggiacenti; e anche quando L’elettrometro è situato ottimamente, mi piace di prendere la semisomma delle due divergenze.
Sono parecchi anni, che uso un elettrometro per misurare le picciole elettricitàtmosferiche, per le quali non serve l’elettrometro di Ensnley. Se non temerò di annoiarvi, ve ne manderò La descrizione.
Se mi occorrerài scrivere di cose elettriche far🴮 picciolo ristretto di Epino, e Cawendisk &c.
Io avea scritta questa carta unicamente per memoria di materia da scrivere; ma ora ricevo La lettera d’inbarco delle 500 copie; non ho tempo a riscrivere, nè vuo differire, Epperò perdonate Chiar[issim]o Signore alla improprietàe al disordine di questa lettera. Le copie delle tavole sono 508 tutte unite; inoltre, siccome alcune copie della seconda tavola sono con pocha margine, v’è il supplemento.
La spesa della carta e impronto è di L piemontesi 116 soldi 7½. Non so peranche la spesa della cassa, e del trasporto a Nizza; ne manderò la nota; E se vorrete mandarmi alcuna copia della traduzione (e poche mi basteranno) saro soddisfatto. Sono curiosissimo di sapere se il Signore Priestley ha cercato di avverare un mio sospetto

Translation
[After Aug. 11, 1773]
Most illustrious and honored Sir, my particular Master,
After you asked me about Aepinus I reread him a second time; and in addition to learning from him about Richmann’s experiment, as I already wrote you, I noted in particular:
I. That Aepinus realized that there is no motion between an electrified and an unelectrified body. Hence this discovery, which I ascribed to myself in writing about electrical atmosphere, belongs to Aepinus.
II. That Aepinus has noted an experiment on vindicating electricity, i.e., rubbing together two plates fitted with an insulated handle: they generate no electricity when together, and opposing electricity when separated. Aepinus probably derived this experiment from the Pekin observations, which I have cited in my discussion of vindicating electricity.
III. I particularly liked Aepinus’ magnetic theory, above all his point that magnetism is related to the position in the terrestrial magnetic system occupied by bodies capable of being magnetized. Magnetism caused by a spark is no exception.
Aepinus’ work strikes me in general as of great value. But Mr. Cavendish’s seems to me even better, particularly because it reduces the effect of electrical action very nearly to the inverse of the squares of the distances, and thereby reduces the actions to the surfaces of the bodies.
Frankly, however, in my section on derivative electrical phenomena I cannot stop, as I already wrote you, with mere attraction and repulsion. Seeing the electrical atmosphere spread gradually from the upper face of your square and bend around under the bare margins, and successively fill the coated part of the lower face, and [observing] innumerable other similar experiments that have been made compel me to limit, for instance, the primordial force of the electric fire to repulsion.

A friend showed me the seventeenth article of the appendix to the Monthly Review, Vol. XLVII [1772], 552[-4]. I should like you to have a look at it. Vanity tries to persuade me that vulgar envy had a hand in the article, and that part of it is untrue.
I read with pleasure the praise from Priestley for Elsmey’s electrometer. I built a double one. I: Two pieces of cardboard (ABCDE, abcde) are each composed of a rectangle (ACDF) and two half-circles (ABC,FED). II: These pieces are attached to the top of the small column (GH) so that they are parallel and a fraction of an inch apart. III: The head (G) of the little column has a small brass cap, which bears two thin and extremely flexible pins connecting the centers of the half-circles (V, V). IV: To these are attached the pendulums (VP, vp), &c.
Here are the advantages. I: No electricity is released between planes so close to one another, and what is released from the margins should be considered uniform; hence the motion of the pendulums is unaffected by the electricity coming from Elsmey’s single plane, which tends to drive his pendulum perpendicularly away from the plane, whereas the force to be measured tends to drive it parallel. II: I use two pendulums, because comparing their divergences helps me to place the electrometer where it will be least disturbed by adjacent bodies; and even when it is so placed I take the mean between the two divergences.
For many years I have used an electrometer to measure small amounts of atmospheric electricity, for which Ensnley’s is useless. I will send you a description if it will not bore you.

Should I have occasion to write about electrical matters, I will make a brief summary of Aepinus and Cavendish, &c.
[Postscript?] I had composed this only as a memorandum of things to write about. But I have now received the bill of lading for the 500 copies; I have no time to rewrite, and no wish to delay. Hence do forgive, most illustrious Sir, the mistakes and disorder of this letter. The copies of the plates number in all 508; because some copies of the second plate have little margin, extras have been added.
The cost of the paper and handling is £116 7s. Piedmontese. I do not yet know the charge for the box and transportation to Nice; I will send you the bill. I should be glad if you would send me some copies of the translation; a few would suffice. I am most curious to know whether Signor Priestley has tried to confirm a suspicion of mine [remainder missing].


Title: Franklin and William Bollan to Lord Dartmouth, 20 August 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin,Bollan, William
To: Dartmouth, William Legge, Earl of

This letter to the American Secretary, and the one from Franklin alone on the following day, raise an interesting question about the agents’ timing. On the 20th they forwarded what had “this day come to our hands,” the letter to Dartmouth from the Massachusetts House and Council; on the 21st Franklin forwarded the petition from the House, “just received,” for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver. Speaker Cushing had sent the first with his letter of June 30, and the second with that of June 25; did they in fact arrive in reverse order, or did the agents agree to present them in that order for reasons of their own? The letter was relatively conciliatory; the petition was a bombshell. When each was received is not clear, but there is good reason to suppose that the petition arrived first. If so, Franklin may have kept it for a time to see what developed, and then decided with Bollan that the letter gave them a diplomatic way to impress Dartmouth with their constituents’ good will before confronting him with the explosive petition.

My Lord,
S. hampton street, Covt. garden, Augt. 20th. 1773
The Letter herewith inclosed, from the Council and house of Representatives of the Massachusetts province to your Lordship, having this day come to our hands, we think it our duty to forward it without delay, and have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Your Lordship’s most obedient, and most humble servants
W. BollanB Franklin
The rt. honble. the Earl of Dartmouth

Endorsed: Mr. Bollan 20 Aug. 1773


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Peter P. Burdett, 21 August 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Burdett, Peter P.

Burdett is one of the shadowy figures who often appear on the periphery of Franklin’s circle. He lived in Derby for a time, where he was a good friend of Joseph Wright, the painter, and of John Whitehurst, the clock-maker and Franklin’s acquaintance for many years. Burdett first made a name for himself as a cartographer; he won a prize in 1767 for a map of Derbyshire, and some years later did the initial work on a notable map of Cheshire. In 1769 he surveyed a route for the projected Leeds and Liverpool canal, and for the next five years he lived in Liverpool. His interests were shifting to the graphic arts: he was the founder and first president of a local academy of painting and sculpture and contributed to the exhibitions of the Society of Artists, of which he was an honorary fellow. He was the pioneer in the use of aquatint in England, and developed a process for transferring aquatint engravings to pottery. He was soon experimenting with this discovery; he offered it to Frederick of Prussia and, more practically, to the Wedgwoods, who attempted for almost a year and a half to utilize his invention and then, in March of 1773, abandoned it. That recent setback may well have led Burdett to consider emigrating to America as a surveyor to lay out canals, an idea that he must have broached in the missing letter that Franklin is answering. But the idea, like the earlier invention, died aborning. In 1774 Burdett, plagued by creditors, left for the Continent; there he entered the service of the Markgraf of Baden, who was delighted to find that he knew Franklin and promptly forwarded, through him, an invitation to the American to take up residence in Baden. Burdett died in Karlsruhe in 1793.

Sir,
London, Augt. 21. 1773.
I find here on coming to Town your Favour of the 10th Instant. I should think a Man of your Talents a great Acquisition to the Colonies, if we could make it worth your while to remove thither. No Country, certainly, is better fitted by Nature to receive Advantage from the Arts of making Rivers navigable, and forming extensive Communications by means of short Canals between their Branches: But as yet I doubt whether their Population and internal Commerce are sufficient to bear the Expence. Mr. Ballandine, however, may in this Respect be better informed than I am. As yet there has been no Meeting of those concern’d in the intended new Colony, and I apprehend that when they have obtain’d their Patent, their first Cares must be of another kind. But since I am acquainted with your Willingness to engage in such Undertakings, on proper Encouragement, I shall omit no Opportunity of doing Justice to your Character wherever my Opinion may have any Weight, and with the more Pleasure as I am persuaded that in serving you I shall serve my Country.
I should be glad to be inform’d where I can see some Sample of your new Art of Printing in Imitation of Paintings. It must be a most valuable Discovery. With great Esteem, I am, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
Mr Burdet

Addressed: To / Mr P. P. Burdett / at / Liverpool / B Free Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Lord Dartmouth, 21 August 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Dartmouth, William Legge, Earl of

My Lord,
London, August 21, 1773.
I have just received from the House of Representatives of the Massachusett’s-Bay, their Address to the King, which I now enclose, and send to your Lordship, with my humble request in their behalf, that you would be pleased to present it to his Majesty the first convenient opportunity.
I have the pleasure of hearing from that province by my late letters, that a sincere disposition prevails in the people there to be on good terms with the Mother Country; that the Assembly have declared their desire only to be put into the situation they were in before the stamp act; they aim at no novelties. And it is said, that having lately discovered, as they think, the authors of their grievances to be some of their own people, their resentment against Britain is thence much abated.
This good disposition of their’s (will your Lordship permit me to say) may be cultivated by a favourable answer to this Address, which I therefore hope your goodness will endeavour to obtain. With the greatest respect, I have the honor to be, my Lord, &c.
B. Franklin.Agent for the House of Representatives.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Shipley, 21 August 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Shipley, Jonathan

My dear Lord,
London, Augt. 21. 1773.
Inclos’d I send a Boston Newspaper in which the Sermon is advertis’d. The Speaker of the Assembly of the Massachusets, in his Letter to me says, “The Bishop’s Sermon is much liked, as it discovers a catholick Spirit, and Sentiments very favourable with regard to America.” Dr. Chauncey, an ancient Dissenting Minister of Boston, writes, “The Bishop of St. Asaph’s Sermon I got reprinted in 24 Hours after it came to hand. ’Tis universally received here with Approbation and Wonder, and has done much Good. It sold amazingly. A second Impression was called for in two Days.”
I daily expect to hear more of it from the other Colonies.
I hope the good Family all continue well and happy. With sincere Esteem and affectionate Respect I am ever Your Lordship’s most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
Bishop of St. Asaph


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 24 August 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Cushing, Thomas

Sir,
London, Augt. 24. 1773
I received duly your several Favours of June 25, 26, and 30. with the Papers enclosed. My Lord Dartmouth being at his Country Seat, in Staffordshire, I transmitted to him the Address for the Removal of the Govr. and Lieut. Govr. and Mr. Bollan and I jointly transmitted the Letter to his Lordship from both Houses. I delivered to Mr. Bollan one Set of the authenticated Copies of the Letters [and] we shall co-operate [in] the Business [we] are charg’d with.
I am told that the Governor has requested Leave to come home; that some great Persons about the Court do not think the Letters, now they have seen them, a sufficient Foundation for the Resolves, [that therefore] it is not likely he will be remov’d, but suffered to re[sign, and that] some Provision will be made for him here. But nothing [I apprehend], is likely to be done soon, as most of the great Officers of State who compose the Privy Council, are in the Country, and likely to continue there till the Parliament meets, and perhaps the above may be chiefly Conjecture.
[I have] inform’d Mr. Lee, that in Case there should be a Hearing, I was directed to engage him as Council for the Province; [and] that I had receiv’d no Money, but would advance what might be necessary; those Hearings by Council being expensive.
I purpose writing to you again per the Packet: and am, with [the] greatest Respect, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant.
B F.

[P.S. No determination is] yet [public on the case] of [Mr. Livius against Governor W]entworth which has been a very [costly Hearing I] believe to both Sides.
Honble Thos Cushing Esqr


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 26 August 1773
From: Cushing, Thomas
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Boston Augt: 26: 1773
Since my last, which was of the 30th June past, I have been favoured with yours of 2d and 4 of June last, Inclosing Lord Dartmouths Letter directed to yourself as agent of the late House of Representatives in answer to the Several Petitions of the House, which Letter I shall lay before them as soon as the Court meets; I hope soon to be favoured with your observations on this occasion; By Capt. Lyde I had the Honor to receive a Letter from Lord Dartmouth wherein he has Condescended with great Freedom to Communicate to me his sentiments upon the State of our publick affairs. His Lordship’s sentiments are truly noble and generous, they well Comport with his high station and fully Justify that Confidence which his majestys american subjects repose in his wisdom and justice. His Lordship has kindly assured me, that whenever the Province shall by a decent, temperate and dutiful Representation of such measures of Government, as may appear to her to be Injurious to her legal Rights and civil Liberties, lay a proper foundation for releif, that no man will be more ready than he will to assist and support such Representation. I have wrote his Lordship upon this subject, but decency would not permit me to Use that freedom with his Lordship that you will suffer me to use with you. I heartily wish that the Letter of the two Houses to His Lordship of the 29 June Last may fully answer the purposes of the representation his Lordship has mentioned. The Court now stands prorogued to the 4th of november next and, I doubt not, will be further prorogued to the middle of January next: so that it is not likely the Court (if they were so disposed) will have it in their power to prepare and forward such a Representation before the opening of the next session of Parliament, however in case the Court should meet time Enough for that purpose, I am apprehensive many difficulties will attend the accomplishment of it: If I am not so unhappy as to misunderstand his Lordship, relative to the Representation he has mentioned, he intends a Representation of Grievances, in which the point in dispute with respect to the Right of Parliament shall be intirely waved and Kept out of sight, upon which I would observe that Every part of america are greatly Interested in the important Question which by the Governor has been moved here; The alarm is Universal; The Conduct of the late House in this interesting dispute has met with the approbation of all the Colonies; The Eyes of the whole Continent are turned upon this Province, and several Houses of assembly have appointed Committees to Correspond with a Committee appointed by the House of Burgesses of Virginia and with such other Houses of Assembly that shall Chuse Committees for that purpose; and, if I conjecture right, the Houses of assembly thro’ the Continent will in general adopt the same measures, and therefore it is most probable, should a motion be made at the next sessions of the general assembly for a new Petition or Representation, that it would be immeadiately proposed to Consult with the other Houses of Assembly or else to appoint Committees to meet in Congress to agree upon the form of Petitioning, which I fear will make it still more difficult to restore that Harmony between both Countries so ardently wish’d for. I would therefore submit it to your Consideration, (as I have to the Consideration of his Lordship) whether it would not be more Eligible for the Parliament of Great Britain to take up american affairs upon their own principles, without any apparent attention to the applications made by the americans for redress, and from great national Consideration place america upon the same footing on which she was at the Conclusion of the late war; by this means the intangling Questions of the right of Parliament (which I humbly think for the happiness of both Countries ought never to have been agitated) will be kept out of sight, and the colonies by such a voluntary act of Justice and Benevolence will be highly gratified, and will be immeadiately brought to a renewall of that wonted reliance which, untill of late, they have ever had on the Honor and parental affection of the British Nation. I would further observe, (not from any personal pique or Prejudice to the Governor or Lieut. Governor but purely that you may Know every thing that will tend to Restore that Tranquility and Harmony so much sought for) that It appears from the proceedings of the two Houses the last session, relative to those Gentlemen, to be necessary that the Prayer of the Petition of the House to His Majesty of the 23d of June last for their removal should be granted, their usefulness is At an End, and they have entirely lost the Confidence of the People, and if they should do a thousand good offices, so far from being considered in a favourable light, they would all be Considered as Springing from some sinister View, but this I write in great Confidence and desire you would Consider it altogether of a private nature.
I have with freedom mentioned my apprehensions Concerning any further Petition or Representation for the redress of greiviances, your prudence will direct as to the propriety of Communicating them to Lord Dartmouth or any other Person. I Conclude with great Respect your most humble Servant
Thomas Cushing

PS. I beg the favor of your delivering the Inclosed to Lord Dartmouth
Benjamin Franklin Esqr.

Endorsed: Hon. Thos Cushing Esq. Aug. 26. 1773


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Cuthbert, 28 August 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Cuthbert, John

Sir,
London, Augt. 28. 1773.
Your Favour of July 30. came duly to hand, and I have since received and sent to France the Drawings brought to Town by Lady Bewick. I hope they were not too late to be of Use, tho’ I had a Letter from M. Morand about three Months before, that he then despair’d of receiving them, and thought of publishing his Work without them. I have not heard from him since I sent them; as I hoped I might before this time but shall pay upon Sight your Order on Account of the Expence you have been at, and am exceedingly oblig’d by the Care and Pains you have been so good as to take in procuring them. I hope your Health is perfectly reestablished, and am, with great Regard, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin

Notation: Mr Cuthbert relating to the Coal mine Drawings


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Bache, 1 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Bache, Richard

Dear Son,
London Sept. 1. 1773.
I received yours of July 6, by the last Packet that is arriv’d; for we have not yet [that?] of August.
I had thoughts of going by this Packet, but various Considerations, some publick and some private, have occurr’d inducing me to postpone my leaving England for another Season.
A Bill you drew for £27 18s. 0d. on Francis Roper, Mercht in London, has been brought to me, with a Direction annex’d to it that I should be apply’d to in case of Need. I was told that no such Person could be found or heard of. So I accepted the Bill for the Honour of the Drawer; but hope you will make no more such Drafts.
All Friends in Craven Street are well, and rejoice in the Increase of [your] Family. Mrs. Stevenson is just come from a V[isit to Sally] Franklin that was, now Mrs. Pearce, where another [Increase may soon?] be expected. Mrs. S. took her Grandson with her, [torn.] Temple went too, having a few Holidays on Account of [torn]; and being fond of Farming, as he was there and assisted in Seedtime, he was very desirous to be there at the Harvest, where he lent a helping Hand, and made himself as he does [every?]where, exceedingly welcome. Your affectionate Father
B Franklin
Mr Bache


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Alexander Colden, 1 September 1773: résumé
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Colden, Alexander

<London, September 1, 1773: Has received Colden’s of July 7, enclosing Archimedes Georges on Curtis & Lowell for £113 and Norris Goddard on Anthony Todd for £69. Is glad to hear that Colden and his family are well.>


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 1 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Cushing, Thomas

[September 1, 1773]
In my last I informed you, that the address to the King, and the letter from the General Court to Lord Dartmouth, are both transmitted to his Lordship. Enclosed are copies of his answers to Mr. Bollan and myself. There are some expressions in the close of his Lordship’s letter to me, that have a favorable appearance, and therefore I take this first opportunity of communicating it.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 1 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Franklin, Deborah

My dear Child,
London, Sept. 1. 1773
I received yours of July 5. and rejoice with you on the safe Delivery of our dear Daughter, and on our having another Grandson.
I like Ben’s Kindness and Generosity to his Brother, with his Silver Spoon; and am glad he has got so well over the Measles. ’Tis a precious little Fellow! How much I long to see him!
I am griev’d at the Death of good Dr. Evans. When I observe that almost every Letter I receive from you acquaints me with the Death of some Friend, I begin to fear, that when I return, I shall find myself a Stranger in my own Country; and leaving so many Friends here, it will seem leaving Home to go there.
Our Relation that made the Lace (of which I sent you a second Parcel) is special Poor, and always like to be so, therefore I paid her the usual Price, tho’ she would have made it a Present. It was so plain I thought you might have worne it. I am pleas’d that it suits Sally. My Love to her and hers.
Your God-Daughter, Amelia Evans that was (now Barry) has been return’d some time from Africa, but it is only lately that I knew of her Return, for being remov’d she at first miss’d finding me. She is married to a Captain of a Ship in the Turky Trade, and has been once to Turky with her Husband, and has a Son born at Smirna, a fine stout Boy, a year old, as big as her Daughter of two Years that was born in Ireland. She is a great Traveller, having now been in all the 4 Quarters of the World. Last Tuesday Mrs. Stevenson and I went to dine with her and her Husband at a little Box they live in about 2 Miles out of town. He seems a clever Man, and they appear to live comfortably, the House prettily furnish’d, and every thing neat and tidy. She suckled her Giant Boy, and you know what a little Creature she is. Her Girl, the moment I enter’d the Room, smil’d and ran to me; kept to me all the time I staid, would not go to any Body else not even to Father or Mother, nor suffer another little Girl, about 5, that was there playing with her, to come near me. This was thought the more extraordinary, as the Child is remarkably shy, and never went willingly to a Stranger before. It is withal so very like its Grandmother, that I am half inclin’d to think there has been a Transmigration, and that she remember’d an old Friend. They din’d with me yesterday here in Craven street. Amelia sends her Duty to you and Love to Sally, with some curious Seeds she brought with her from Turky, and which I wish you would take care to propagate.
There is a new Translation of my Book at Paris, and printed there, being the 3d Edition in French. A Fifth Edition is now printing here. To the French Edition they have prefix’d a Print of your old Husband, which tho’ a Copy of that per Chamberlain has got so French a Countenance, that you would take him for one of that lively Nation. I think you do not mind such things, or I would send you one. I am ever, my dear Debby, Your affectionate Husband
B Franklin

Addressed: To / Mrs Franklin / Philadelphia / viâ N York /per Packet / B Free Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 1 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Franklin, William

Dear Son,
London, Sept. 1 1773
I have now before me yours of July 5. and 6. The August Packet is not yet arrived.
Dr. Cooper of New York’s Opinion of the Author of the Sermon, however honourable to me, is injurious to the good Bishop; and therefore I must say in Justice and Truth, that I knew nothing of his Intention to preach on the Subject, and saw not a Word of the Sermon till it was printed. Possibly some preceding Conversations between us may have turn’d his Thoughts that way; but if so, that is all.
I think the Resolutions of the New England Townships must have the Effect they seem intended for, viz. to show that the Discontents were really general, and their Sentiments concerning their Rights unanimous, and not the Fiction of a few Demagogues, as their Governors us’d to represent them here. And therefore not useless, tho’ they should not as yet induce Goverment to acknowledge their Claims. That People probably may think it sufficient for the present to assert and hold forth their Rights, secure that sooner or later they must be admitted and acknowledg’d. The declaratory Law here, had too its Use, viz. to prevent or lessen at least a Clamour against the Ministry that repeal’d the Stamp Act, as if they had given up the Right of this Country to govern America. Other Use indeed it could have none, and I remember Ld. Mansfield told the Lords, wh[en upon] that Bill, that it was nugatory. To be sure, in a Dispute between two Partys about Rights, the Declaration of one Party can never be suppos’d to bind the other.
It is said there is now a [project on] foot here to form an Union with Ireland, and [that Lord Harcou]rt is to propose it at the next Meeting of [the Irish parlia]ment. The Eastern Side of Ireland are a[verse to it;] supposing that when Dublin is no longer the Seat of their Legislature it will decline, the Harbour being but indif[ferent,] and that the western and sou[thern] Ports will rise and f[lourish] on [its] Ruins, being good in themselves and much better situ[ated for com]merce. For these same Reasons, the w[estern and southern people] are inclin’d to the Measure, and ’tis [thought it may be carried.] But these are difficult Affairs, and [usually take longer time] than the Projectors imagine. Mr. Cro[wley, the author of] several Proposals for uniting [the colonies with the mother-]Country, and who runs about much among the Ministers, tells me the Union of Ireland is only the first step towards a general union. He is for having it done by the parliament of England, without consulting the colonies, and he will warrant, he says, that if the terms proposed are equitable, they will all come in one after the other. He seems rather a little cracked upon the subject.
It is said here that the famous Boston letters were sent chiefly, if not all, to the late Mr. Wheatly. They fell into my hands, and I thought it my duty to give some principal people there a sight of them, very much with this view, that when they saw the measures they complained of, took their rise in a great degree from the representations and recommendations of their own countrymen, their resentment against Britain on account of those measures might abate, as mine had done, and a reconciliation be more easily obtained. In Boston, they concealed who sent them, the better to conceal who received and communicated them. And perhaps it is as well that it should continue a secret. Being of that country myself I think those letters more heinous than you seem to think them; but you had not read them all, nor perhaps the council’s remarks on them. I have written to decline their agency on account of my return to America. Dr. Lee succeeds me. I only keep it while I stay, which perhaps will be another winter.
I grieve to hear of the death of my good old friend Dr. Evans. I have lost so many since I left America that I begin to fear I shall find myself a stranger among strangers when I return. If so, I must come again to my friends in England.
I have heard nothing of the Ohio Affair since my last. Depend upon it no such Orders were given to build Houses at Fort Pitt. I shall as you advise exert myself in that Business more than I have done, for I see ’tis necessary; and that is one Inducement to my continuing here a little longer. My respectful Compliments to Mr. Galloway, from whom I now hear very seldom. I am ever your affectionate father,
B Franklin


Title: An Infallible Method to Restore Peace and Harmony, 8 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

Franklin had long believed that the method outlined here offered the best hope of reconciliation, but he had never before formulated his belief so concretely or expressed it so publicly. His decision to do so at this point may have been related to his recent discovery that the Massachusetts House and Council, speaking for the province, had taken the same position in their letter of June 29 to Lord Dartmouth.

To the Printer of the Public Advertiser.
Permit me, Sir, to communicate to the Ministry, thro’ the Channel of your Paper, an infallible Method (and but one) to silence the Clamours of the Americans; to restore Peace and Harmony between the Colonies and the Mother Country; to regain the Affections of the most loyal, and I will venture to say the most virtuous of his Majesty’s Subjects, whose Assistance may one Day be necessary to preserve that Freedom, which is the Glory and Happiness of the English Nation, and without which, from the Luxury and Effeminacy which at present reigns so universally among us, is in imminent Danger of being lost forever. The Method is plain and easy: Place the Americans in the same Individual Situation they were in before that di[aboli]cal, unconstitutional, oppressive Revenue Act was formed and endeavoured to be carried into Execution by Mr. Grenville; repeal the odious Tax on Tea; supersede the Board of Commissioners; let the Governors and Judges be appointed by the Crown, and paid by the People as usual; recall the Troops, except what are absolutely necessary for the Preservation of the new-acquired Provinces; in fine, put every Thing on its ancient Footing. The Plea of its being dishonourable to give up a Point once determined upon, is vain and nugatory: The Instances are innumerable of Repeals of Acts of Parliament, which, when passed, were thought wise and necessary. The Stamp Duty for America is a recent Instance in point. Acts of Prerogative are surely not more sacred than Acts of Parliament. I insist upon it, that nothing would redound so much to the Honour of Administration, nothing would convince Mankind that the Intentions of Government are just and equitable, equal to the little Sacrifice of Vanity and the Pride of Power to the general Welfare of the British Empire. It is asserted, that there are Emissaries from France, who endeavour to foment the Difference between Great Britain and her Colonies. Disappoint this subtle and perfidious Nation. I will venture to prophecy, that notwithstanding this little Breach, the Connexion will be as strong, perhaps stronger than ever.
It was always the Boast of the Americans, that they could claim their Original from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and their Joy upon being re-admitted to all the Privileges of Englishmen will operate as a new Cement to a grateful and generous People, which will for ever ensure their future Loyalty and Obedience.
The above is the sincere Opinion of
A Well-Wisher to Great Britain and her Colonies.


Title: Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One, 11 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

Franklin was pleased with this satire, which was a companion piece to “An Edict by the King of Prussia.” Both had the virtues, he believed, of brevity, comprehensiveness, and “out-of-the-way forms” that caught attention; but he preferred the “Rules” to the “Edict” for the breadth and variety of its contents and for “a kind of spirited ending of each paragraph.” His technique in the two was different: in this one he challenged his readers to see their government’s policy through colonial eyes; in the “Edict” he jolted them with the fiction that they were colonists themselves. The two essays had a single purpose, to induce the public to take a fresh look at the American problem. When Parliament reconvened in the autumn, that problem promised to be a major subject of discussion; and the sensational demand from Massachusetts for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver was sure, when it came before the Privy Council, to provoke a storm. Moderate counsels could never prevail unless the folly of past measures was exposed, and Franklin devoted himself to exposing it. At the top of his satirical bent he could not be ignored, and the initial public reaction to his efforts was gratifying. The issue of the Public Advertiser containing the “Edict” sold out immediately, and both satires were widely reprinted in England and then in America.
What Franklin achieved is another matter. Satire is a poor instrument of persuasion, for the open-minded are likely to be entertained—perhaps shocked—rather than convinced, and the close-minded to be angered. He was aware of the danger. Although he hoped to turn a spotlight on colonial grievances in order to gain redress, he realized that the effect might be to make matters worse. For him personally that seems to have been the effect. The government dared not mention these attacks for fear of giving them even greater publicity, he concluded later, but they accounted in great part for the official fury unleashed upon him early in 1774.
The substance behind the “Rules” was scarcely new. Franklin had, in more sober fashion, made almost every point before. He touched hardly at all upon the constitutional issues that the Bostonians had set boiling, no doubt because they were difficult to treat satirically; but he marshaled most of the other themes that were his stock in trade as a controversialist. Some related to the colonies in general, some to Massachusetts in particular, and they ran the gamut from old trade restrictions and novel taxes to the oppression wrought by the army and navy; the result was, as he said, comprehensive. These themes were so familiar from long reiteration that in their usual form they might well have evoked no more than a shrug from the British public. By recasting them in the “out-of-the-way” form of satire he gave them a new bite. But the effect was short-lived. The government soon bit him in turn and then—the final irony—legislated many of his “Rules” in the Coercive Acts of 1774.

For the Public Advertiser.
Rules by which a GREAT Empire may be reduced to a SMALL ONE. [Presented privately to a late Minister, when he entered upon his Administration; and now first published.]
An ancient Sage valued himself upon this, that tho’ he could not fiddle, he knew how to make a great City of a little one. The Science that I, a modern Simpleton, am about to communicate is the very reverse.
I address myself to all Ministers who have the Management of extensive Dominions, which from their very Greatness are become troublesome to govern, because the Multiplicity of their Affairs leaves no Time for fiddling.
I. In the first Place, Gentlemen, you are to consider, that a great Empire, like a great Cake, is most easily diminished at the Edges. Turn your Attention therefore first to your remotest Provinces; that as you get rid of them, the next may follow in Order.
II. That the Possibility of this Separation may always exist, take special Care the Provinces are never incorporated with the Mother Country, that they do not enjoy the same common Rights, the same Privileges in Commerce, and that they are governed by severer Laws, all of your enacting, without allowing them any Share in the Choice of the Legislators. By carefully making and preserving such Distinctions, you will (to keep to my Simile of the Cake) act like a wise Gingerbread Baker, who, to facilitate a Division, cuts his Dough half through in those Places, where, when bak’d, he would have it broken to Pieces.

III. These remote Provinces have perhaps been acquired, purchas’d, or conquer’d, at the sole Expence of the Settlers or their Ancestors, without the Aid of the Mother Country. If this should happen to increase her Strength by their growing Numbers ready to join in her Wars, her Commerce by their growing Demand for her Manufactures, or her Naval Power by greater Employment for her Ships and Seamen, they may probably suppose some Merit in this, and that it entitles them to some Favour; you are therefore to forget it all, or resent it as if they had done you Injury. If they happen to be zealous Whigs, Friends of Liberty, nurtur’d in Revolution Principles, remember all that to their Prejudice, and contrive to punish it: For such Principles, after a Revolution is thoroughly established, are of no more Use, they are even odious and abominable.
IV. However peaceably your Colonies have submitted to your Government, shewn their Affection to your Interest, and patiently borne their Grievances, you are to suppose them always inclined to revolt, and treat them accordingly. Quarter Troops among them, who by their Insolence may provoke the rising of Mobs, and by their Bullets and Bayonets suppress them. By this Means, like the Husband who uses his Wife ill from Suspicion, you may in Time convert your Suspicions into Realities.
V. Remote Provinces must have Governors, and Judges, to represent the Royal Person, and execute every where the delegated Parts of his Office and Authority. You Ministers know, that much of the Strength of Government depends on the Opinion of the People; and much of that Opinion on the Choice of Rulers placed immediately over them. If you send them wise and good Men for Governors, who study the Interest of the Colonists, and advance their Prosperity, they will think their King wise and good, and that he wishes the Welfare of his Subjects. If you send them learned and upright Men for judges, they will think him a Lover of Justice. This may attach your Provinces more to his Government. You are therefore to be careful who you recommend for those Offices. If you can find Prodigals who have ruined their Fortunes, broken Gamesters or Stock-Jobbers, these may do well as Governors; for they will probably be rapacious, and provoke the People by their Extortions. Wrangling Proctors and petty-fogging Lawyers too are not amiss, for they will be for ever disputing and quarrelling with their little Parliaments, if withal they should be ignorant, wrong-headed and insolent, so much the better. Attorneys Clerks and Newgate Solicitors will do for Chief-Justices, especially if they hold their Places during your Pleasure: And all will contribute to impress those ideas of your Government that are proper for a People you would wish to renounce it.
VI. To confirm these Impressions, and strike them deeper, whenever the Injured come to the Capital with Complaints of Mal-administration, Oppression, or Injustice, punish such Suitors with long Delay, enormous Expence, and a final Judgment in Favour of the Oppressor. This will have an admirable Effect every Way. The Trouble of future Complaints will be prevented, and Governors and Judges will be encouraged to farther Acts of Oppression and Injustice; and thence the People may become more disaffected, and at length desperate.
VII. When such Governors have crammed their Coffers, and made themselves so odious to the People that they can no longer remain among them with Safety to their Persons, recall and reward them with Pensions. You may make them Baronets too, if that respectable Order should not think fit to resent it. All will contribute to encourage new Governors in the same Practices, and make the supreme Government detestable.
VIII. If when you are engaged in War, your Colonies should vie in liberal Aids of Men and Money against the common Enemy, upon your simple Requisition, and give far beyond their Abilities, reflect, that a Penny taken from them by your Power is more honourable to you than a Pound presented by their Benevolence. Despise therefore their voluntary Grants, and resolve to harrass them with novel Taxes. They will probably complain to your Parliaments that they are taxed by a Body in which they have no Representative, and that this is contrary to common Right. They will petition for Redress. Let the Parliaments flout their Claims, reject their Petitions, refuse even to suffer the reading of them, and treat the Petitioners with the utmost Contempt. Nothing can have a better Effect, in producing the Alienation proposed; for though many can forgive Injuries, none ever forgave Contempt.
IX. In laying these Taxes, never regard the heavy Burthens those remote People already undergo, in defending their own Frontiers, supporting their own provincial Governments, making new Roads, building Bridges, Churches and other public Edifices, which in old Countries have been done to your Hands by your Ancestors, but which occasion constant Calls and Demands on the Purses of a new People. Forget the Restraints you lay on their Trade for your own Benefit, and the Advantage a Monopoly of this Trade gives your exacting Merchants. Think nothing of the Wealth those Merchants and your Manufacturers acquire by the Colony Commerce; their encreased Ability thereby to pay Taxes at home; their accumulating, in the Price of their Commodities, most of those Taxes, and so levying them from their consuming Customers: All this, and the Employment and Support of thousands of your Poor by the Colonists, you are intirely to forget. But remember to make your arbitrary Tax more grievous to your Provinces, by public Declarations importing that your Power of taxing them has no limits, so that when you take from them without their Consent a Shilling in the Pound, you have a clear Right to the other nineteen. This will probably weaken every Idea of Security in their Property, and convince them that under such a Government they have nothing they can call their own; which can scarce fail of producing the happiest Consequences!
X. Possibly indeed some of them might still comfort themselves, and say, “Though we have no Property, we have yet something left that is valuable; we have constitutional Liberty both of Person and of Conscience. This King, these Lords, and these Commons, who it seems are too remote from us to know us and feel for us, cannot take from us our Habeas Corpus Right, or our Right of Trial by a Jury of our Neighbours: They cannot deprive us of the Exercise of our Religion, alter our ecclesiastical Constitutions, and compel us to be Papists if they please, or Mahometans.” To annihilate this Comfort, begin by Laws to perplex their Commerce with infinite Regulations impossible to be remembered and observed; ordain Seizures of their Property for every Failure; take away the Trial of such Property by Jury, and give it to arbitrary Judges of your own appointing, and of the lowest Characters in the Country, whose Salaries and Emoluments are to arise out of the Duties or Condemnations, and whose Appointments are during Pleasure. Then let there be a formal Declaration of both Houses, that Opposition to your Edicts is Treason, and that Persons suspected of Treason in the Provinces may, according to some obsolete Law, be seized and sent to the Metropolis of the Empire for Trial; and pass an Act that those there charged with certain other Offences shall be sent away in Chains from their Friends and Country to be tried in the same Manner for Felony. Then erect a new Court of Inquisition among them, accompanied by an armed Force, with Instructions to transport all such suspected Persons, to be ruined by the Expence if they bring over Evidences to prove their Innocence, or be found guilty and hanged if they can’t afford it. And lest the People should think you cannot possibly go any farther, pass another solemn declaratory Act, that “King, Lords, and Commons had, hath, and of Right ought to have, full Power and Authority to make Statutes of sufficient Force and Validity to bind the unrepresented Provinces IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER.” This will include Spiritual with temporal; and taken together, must operate wonderfully to your Purpose, by convincing them, that they are at present under a Power something like that spoken of in the Scriptures, which can not only kill their Bodies, but damn their Souls to all Eternity, by compelling them, if it pleases, to worship the Devil.
XI. To make your Taxes more odious, and more likely to procure Resistance, send from the Capital a Board of Officers to superintend the Collection, composed of the most indiscreet, ill-bred and insolent you can find. Let these have large Salaries out of the extorted Revenue, and live in open grating Luxury upon the Sweat and Blood of the Industrious, whom they are to worry continually with groundless and expensive Prosecutions before the above-mentioned arbitrary Revenue-Judges, all at the Cost of the Party prosecuted tho’ acquitted, because the King is to pay no Costs. Let these Men by your Order be exempted from all the common Taxes and Burthens of the Province, though they and their Property are protected by its Laws. If any Revenue Officers are suspected of the least Tenderness for the People, discard them. If others are justly complained of, protect and reward them. If any of the Under-officers behave so as to provoke the People to drub them, promote those to better Offices: This will encourage others to procure for themselves such profitable Drubbings, by multiplying and enlarging such Provocations, and all with work towards the End you aim at.
XII. Another Way to make your Tax odious, is to misapply the Produce of it. If it was originally appropriated for the Defence of the Provinces and the better Support of Government, and the Administration of Justice where it may be necessary, then apply none of it to that Defence, but bestow it where it is not necessary, in augmented Salaries or Pensions to every Governor who has distinguished himself by his Enmity to the People, and by calumniating them to their Sovereign. This will make them pay it more unwillingly, and be more apt to quarrel with those that collect it, and those that imposed it, who will quarrel again with them, and all shall contribute to your main Purpose of making them weary of your Government.
XIII. If the People of any Province have been accustomed to support their own Governors and Judges to Satisfaction, you are to apprehend that such Governors and Judges may be thereby influenced to treat the People kindly, and to do them Justice. This is another Reason for applying Part of that Revenue in larger Salaries to such Governors and Judges, given, as their Commissions are, during your Pleasure only, forbidding them to take any Salaries from their Provinces; that thus the People may no longer hope any Kindness from their Governors, or (in Crown Cases) any Justice from their Judges. And as the Money thus mis-applied in one Province is extorted from all, probably all will resent the Misapplication.
XIV. If the Parliaments of your Provinces should dare to claim Rights or complain of your Administration, order them to be harass’d with repeated Dissolutions. If the same Men are continually return’d by new Elections, adjourn their Meetings to some Country Village where they cannot be accommodated, and there keep them during Pleasure; for this, you know, is your Prerogative; and an excellent one it is, as you may manage it, to promote Discontents among the People, diminish their Respect, and increase their Disaffection.
XV. Convert the brave honest Officers of your Navy into pimping Tide-waiters and Colony Officers of the Customs. Let those who in Time of War fought gallantly in Defence of the Commerce of their Countrymen, in Peace be taught to prey upon it. Let them learn to be corrupted by great and real Smugglers; but (to shew their Diligence) scour with armed Boats every Bay, Harbour, River, Creek, Cove or Nook throughout the Coast of your Colonies, stop and detain every Coaster, every Wood-boat, every Fisherman, tumble their Cargoes, and even their Ballast, inside out and upside down; and if a Penn’orth of Pins is found un-entered, let the Whole be seized and confiscated. Thus shall the Trade of your Colonists suffer more from their Friends in Time of Peace, than it did from their Enemies in War. Then let these Boats Crews land upon every Farm in their Way, rob the Orchards, steal the Pigs and Poultry, and insult the Inhabitants. If the injured and exasperated Farmers, unable to procure other Justice, should attack the Agressors, drub them and burn their Boats, you are to call this High Treason and Rebellion, order Fleets and Armies into their Country, and threaten to carry all the Offenders three thousand Miles to be hang’d, drawn and quartered. O! this will work admirably!
XVI. If you are told of Discontents in your Colonies, never believe that they are general, or that you have given Occasion for them; therefore do not think of applying any Remedy, or of changing any offensive Measure. Redress no Grievance, lest they should be encouraged to demand the Redress of some other Grievance. Grant no Request that is just and reasonable, lest they should make another that is unreasonable. Take all your Informations of the State of the Colonies from your Governors and Officers in Enmity with them. Encourage and reward these Leasing-makers; secrete their lying Accusations lest they should be confuted; but act upon them as the clearest Evidence, and believe nothing you hear from the Friends of the People. Suppose all their Complaints to be invented and promoted by a few factious Demagogues, whom if you could catch and hang, all would be quiet. Catch and hang a few of them accordingly; and the Blood of the Martyrs shall work Miracles in favour of your Purpose.
XVII. If you see rival Nations rejoicing at the Prospect of your Disunion with your Provinces, and endeavouring to promote it: If they translate, publish and applaud all the Complaints of your discontented Colonists, at the same Time privately stimulating you to severer Measures; let not that alarm or offend you. Why should it? since you all mean the same Thing.
XVIII. If any Colony should at their own Charge erect a Fortress to secure their Port against the Fleets of a foreign Enemy, get your Governor to betray that Fortress into your Hands. Never think of paying what it cost the Country, for that would look, at least, like some Regard for Justice; but turn it into a Citadel to awe the Inhabitants and curb their Commerce. If they should have lodged in such Fortress the very Arms they bought and used to aid you in your Conquests, seize them all, ’twill provoke like Ingratitude added to Robbery. One admirable Effect of these Operations will be, to discourage every other Colony from erecting such Defences, and so their and your Enemies may more easily invade them, to the great Disgrace of your Government, and of course the Furtherance of your Project.
XIX. Send Armies into their Country under Pretence of protecting the Inhabitants; but instead of garrisoning the Forts on their Frontiers with those Troops, to prevent Incursions, demolish those Forts, and order the Troops into the Heart of the Country, that the Savages may be encouraged to attack the Frontiers, and that the Troops may be protected by the Inhabitants: This will seem to proceed from your Ill will or your Ignorance, and contribute farther to produce and strengthen an Opinion among them, that you are no longer fit to govern them.
XX. Lastly, Invest the General of your Army in the Provinces with great and unconstitutional Powers, and free him from the Controul of even your own Civil Governors. Let him have Troops enow under his Command, with all the Fortresses in his Possession; and who knows but (like some provincial Generals in the Roman Empire, and encouraged by the universal Discontent you have produced) he may take it into his Head to set up for himself. If he should, and you have carefully practised these few excellent Rules of mine, take my Word for it, all the Provinces will immediately join him, and you will that Day (if you have not done it sooner) get rid of the Trouble of governing them, and all the Plagues attending their Commerce and Connection from thenceforth and for ever.
Q.E.D.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Charles Wilcox, 13 September 1773
From: Wilcox, Charles
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Bristol, 13th Septr. 1773.
You was so kind as to assure Me in Your Letter to Me of the 3d Febry last that if I had Occasion to trouble You, You would Serve Me. The Case now Sir is this I am apply’d to by the Heirs of one Colonel William Cole who had an Estate in Maryland and Philadelphia to recover the same for them. You will Extreamly Oblige Me Sir to let Me know if You knew any such Person. He died about 13 Years since at Coles Creek in Maryland. I beg You will excuse the Trouble I give You to answer this Letter, it will be serving a poor Family and Oblige Sir Your most Humble Servant
Chas. Wilcox

PS. A Vessell will sail in about 10 days for Phila. if you have any dispatches I will take Care to forward them
Benja Fra[nklin]

Addressed: Benja. Franklin Esqr LLD / In / Craven Street / London


Title: ’Tis Never Too Late to Mend, 14 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

Although Franklin was delighted with his satire, “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One,” he was not confident that the public shared his opinion of it. To draw attention to it, presumably, he inserted the following letter in the Public Advertiser. But the essay needed no such publicity; it was making its own way, and was soon widely reprinted.

 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser.
Sir,
I HAD the Pleasure to read in your Paper of Saturday last some excellent Rules, by which a Great Empire may be reduced to a small One. They are drawn up in a fine Vein of Irony, which is admirably supported throughout.
If the Ministry have any Sense of Shame remaining, they must blush to see their Conduct with respect to America placed in such a striking Point of Ridicule; and the ingenious Author is intitled to the Thanks both of Great Britain and the Colonies for shewing the Absurdity and bad Policy of such Conduct.
To be sensible of Error is one Step towards Amendment; no Man is infallible; and Ministers are but Men; ’tis never too late to mend, nor is it any Impeachment of our Understanding to confess that we have been mistaken; for it implies that we are wiser Today than we were the Day before; and surely Individuals need not be ashamed publicly to retract an Error, since the Legislature itself does it every Time that it repeals one of its own Acts.
But though the Americans have long been oppressed, let them not despair. The Administration of the Colonies is no longer in the Hands of a Shelburne, a Clare, or a Hillsborough; thank Heaven that Department is NOW entrusted to an Englishman! Be it his Glory to reverse those baneful and pernicious Measures which have too long harrassed the Colonies, and have given such a Blow to the Credit, the Commerce, and the Naval Power of the Mother Country. I am, Sir,
A sincere Well-wisher to Great Britain and her Colonies.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin Rush, [after 15 September 1773]
From: Rush, Benjamin
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Honoured Sir
[After Sept. 15, 1773]
I acknowledge myself much indebted to you for the Instruction contained in your last Letter. I have met with many Facts which confirm your Opinion of the Origin of Catarhs from Cloaths, Beds, Books &c. Baron Van Swieten in his last Volume of Commentaries on Dr. Boerhave’s Aphorisms in treating upon Epidemic Diseases mentions with Astonishment a Disorder which was peculiar only to the students and Bookseller of the University of Alstorp in Switzerland. May not the Origin of this be traced to the Library of the University from which all the Inhabitants of the town except the Bookseller were probably excluded? A Clergyman from Charlestown in South Carolina who had never heard of your Remark informed me lately that he had almost lost his wife by a severe Catarh which she caught by assisting him in moving his Library from One Room into Another. Instances of Catarh derived and propagated from Beds, Cloathes &c. might be mentioned without Number. But I can by no means think that Catarhs should be confined to these Causes. The Cases you have mentioned I grant a little invalidate the Arguments derived from the Operation of Cold in producing Catarhs, but I beg Leave to add that they do not appear conclusive. Dr. Gaubius in his Pathology speaks of certain remote Causes of Diseases which act only on what he calls the “predispositis.” Thus a few Glasses of Wine will bring on a Fitt of the Gout upon a Man who inherits a gouty Constitution, provided he drinks them at the usual seasons of that Disorder’s attacking him. The same Quantity of Wine will have no Effect upon a Man who is not predisposed, or subject to the Gout. We cannot say however from this that Wine is not One of the remote Causes of that Disorder. Putrid Diseases are brought on by Effluvia from putrefying Animal substances. The City of Edinburgh and many of the principal Cities in Spain are never free from these Effluvia and yet we do Not find they are more subject to putrid Diseases than Other Places. It will not do to say here that the Volatile salt which is constantly extricated from these foecal Matters acts as an antisceptic and prevents putrid Diseases. The same Salt is extricated from Other putrid Matters without producing any such Effect. These Facts however by no means call in Question the Truth of that general Proposition that putrid animal Effluvia generate putrid Diseases. The Operation of Cold and moisture requires a Predisposition in the Body to produce a Disorder in it. A man with weak Lungs seldom fails of having a Cough brought on, or aggravated by wetting his feet, sitting in a damp Room, riding or walking in the night Air. A man who has had the Sensibility of his Lungs encreased by previous warm weather, a warm Room, or by speaking or singing long, or with a loud voice will seldom fail of having a Cough or Defluxion brought on his Breast, if he exposes himself immediately After any of these, to a cold Air. Cold and moisture it may be said influence the Operation of those Matters which bring on Catarhs, and thus appear to act by themselves. But it cannot be so in the present Instances. Moreover in the Histories of all Epidemics, whether Plague, small pox, putrid fevers &c. we find the operation of Cold and moisture in the most sensible Manner upon the Body either in predisposing to, preventing or changing the Type of these Diseases. But I go further; we find several Diseases actually produced by Cold such as the Rheumatism, Angina, and Pleuresy.
After much and painful Enquiry into [remainder missing.]


Title: On Governor Bernard’s Testimony to the Loyalty of Massachusetts, 17 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

 To the Printer of the Public Advertiser.
Sir,
As I gather from a very sensible Piece, entitled “Rules and Orders for reducing a great Empire to a SMALL One,” published in your Paper of Saturday last, that the Inhabitants of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay had all their Arms (which were bought of us with their own Money, and with which they fought so successfully in our glorious Conquests in the last War) taken from them without any Consideration whatever, which were in the Castle ordered out of their Hands by Lord Hillsborough a few Years ago, will you be so good as to publish the following Extracts from three of Governor Bernard’s Speeches to that People? before he became their implacable Enemy, on being found out, detected and despised by them, from which (even his Testimony) it will appear how ready they were, on all Occasions, to assist us both with their Money and their Blood to the utmost of their Abilities.
<On Nov. 12, 1761, the Governor expressed his pleasure at the unanimity of the support that had been forthcoming from the oldest and most loyal American colony, and his confidence that both houses would do everything in their power to make his administration useful to the province. On April 24, 1762, he thanked them for their prompt compliance with every requisition, for which the credit was entirely theirs; his reward was to preside over such a public-spirited people. On May 27, 1762, he lauded the colony’s war effort: never before that year had regiments been so easily and quickly raised, and provision for the King’s service had been so ample that nothing more was at present required.>
N.B. These are the People who have lately had Fleets and Armies sent among ’em, to subdue them as Rebels and Traitors!!!


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 18 September 1773
From: Cushing, Thomas
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Boston Sept. 18 1773
The foregoing is Copy of my last since which I have not received any of your Favors; I have lately received a Letter from the Speaker of the House of Deputies of the Colony of Rhode Island desiring I would favor him with G Rome’s original Letter. I have wrote him that it is returned to England. Inclosed you have a Copy of the Speaker’s Letter and should be glad if you could furnish me, Mr. Bowler or Mr. Henry Merchant of Newport with the original Letter before mentioned, or if you cannot obtain leave to Send the original Letter Again, perhaps you may furnish us with an attested Copy of it, which may in some measure answer the purpose tho not so well as the original. I should be glad [if] you would Inform me how far the administration have proceeded with regard to the Judges saleries, we have been Informed that the King in Council has ordered that they shall be allowed Salleries from home, but whether Warrants have as yet been even Issued for their payment is uncertain. I should be glad to know in what situation this matter is in at present. I conclude with great respect Your most humble Servant
Thomas Cushing

[In the margin:] Inclosed you have a Newspaper in which you have Inserted a Letter to the Cheif Justice and a paper laid before the Superior Court.

Endorsed: Augst. 22. 73 Thos Cushing Esqr with Metcalf Bowler’s Letter, Speaker of the Rh Island Assembly.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Williams, Jr., [before 21 September 1773]
From: Williams, Jonathan Jr.
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Dear and honoured sir
[Before Sept. 21, 1773]
I received your kind Letter inclosing one for Mr. Cowan purser of the Glasgow, who is now at Hallifax, but as the Ship is ordered here in about 3 Weeks, shall keep ’till that time as the most certain way of getting it speedily to his hands.
I am sorry to find that the East India Company do not intend to send a Ship to America, but am not the less obliged by your and Mrs. Barwells kind Intentions. Commission Business is allowed to be the safest that is transacted, and as I can attend more affairs than I have to employ me, I should be glad to make as many commercial concerns as I can, especially in England, as all our Trade centers there: and if they did not prove immediately so profitable, it renders a Man of such consequence, that in turn his connexion is solicited by others, and many advantageous transient affairs might fall into his hands, which for want of being known he might miss of. I am never so happy as when fully employed, for of whatever profession I might be, I should wish to be the most eminent. This I know has the appearance of ambition, but I hope I have not too much of it, and I hope also when it leads in the channel of Business ’tis not blameable, for it appears to me no extraordinary proof of Talents, to do what any one else may do, and I think the best Cobler has more merit than an ordinary merchant. For this reason I am flattered with, and fond of my superfine Cloth Trade, for I wish to be conspicuous for my knowledge in, and attention to Business as well as for preserving an unlimited Credit. I could not bear that should suffer, for I had rather live on bread and water and be thought an honest man, than to posses Thousands with a suspicious Character. I intend this Winter to strain every nerve to lessen my debts in England, and if in my power to pay them all, for just at this Time the credit of this Town seems to be going to general Wreck, so that it particularly Behoves me to establish mine, that after the purgation is over, I may come out with unsullied reputation, and pursue my Business with fresh Vigour. ’Tis imagined that many orders from this side will be refused, and only those who can bear a scrutiny will be trusted again, by which means the Trade will get into such hands, as to enable the prosecutors of it to carry it on with satisfaction and profit. I have delivered the Letter to Henry who I take care to advise with regard to his Behaviour to his master and application to his Trade which I hope and believe he will be master of and as I hear no complaints I am inclined to think he behaves very well

Be pleased to make my best Respects acceptable to Mrs. Stevenson, Mr. and Mrs. Hewson Mrs. Blunt and all enquiring. Friends on this side are well and join in Duty and Love with Your dutifull and Affectionate Kinsman
Jona Williams Junr

By mine and several other Letters from England I find the Merchants trading to N England [have] declined shipping Tea to any of their Friends in consequence of the India Company having it in contemplation to ship Teas themselves, which leads me to think they did intend it; but you must best know what can be obtain’d, from them, and what is proper I should receive. I am (as above)
J W

Addressed: To / Doctr Benja Franklin / at Mrs Stevensons In / Craven Street / Strand / London / Per Gorham


Title: An Edict by the King of Prussia, 22 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

When this famous hoax first appeared, Franklin had the pleasure of seeing it taken at face value. Part of the reason, no doubt, was his shrewdness in choosing the fictional author. Frederick II of Prussia had been estranged from Britain by the Peace of Paris, and made no secret of his contempt for the country. He had recently suggested, according to an English officer at his court, sending over several regiments to protect the monarchy against radicals, and even coming himself to be king. His conduct towards his Continental neighbors, as reported in London, was equally unsavory and far more relevant to Franklin’s purposes: the King sent troops to keep order in his newly acquired Polish provinces and bullied the Polish Diet, issued an edict laying claim to part of the Dutch Netherlands, and then to cap the climax justified his acquisitions in Poland by asserting that they had rightfully been Prussian since the days of the Teutonic Knights. His reputation with the British public, in short, was calculated to give his edict the ring of authenticity.
The document, after the preamble, is built of British materials. It consists of various Parliamentary statutes, beginning with the Restoration, which are partly quoted, partly paraphrased, and partly embellished with Franklin’s inventions. He intended the “Edict” and its companion, the “Rules by Which a Great Empire May be Reduced to a Small One,” as anything but persiflage. Under the surface the “Edict” was a summary of colonial grievances that went back for almost a century; King Frederick’s foisting them upon Britain was what Franklin called an “out-of-the-way form” to highlight them.

For the Public Advertiser.
The Subject of the following Article of Foreign Intelligence being exceeding EXTRAORDINARY, is the Reason of its being separated from the usual Articles of Foreign News.
Dantzick, September 5.
We have long wondered here at the Supineness of the English Nation, under the Prussian Impositions upon its Trade entering our Port. We did not till lately know the Claims, antient and modern, that hang over that Nation, and therefore could not suspect that it might submit to those Impositions from a Sense of Duty, or from Principles of Equity. The following Edict, just made public, may, if serious, throw some Light upon this Matter.
“Frederick, by the Grace of God, King of Prussia, &c. &c. &c. to all present and to come,
   * A tous presens et à venir. Orig.
 Health. The Peace now enjoyed throughout our Dominions, having afforded us Leisure to apply ourselves to the Regulation of Commerce, the Improvement of our Finances, and at the same Time the easing our Domestic Subjects in their Taxes: For these Causes, and other good Considerations us thereunto moving, We hereby make known, that after having deliberated these Affairs in our Council, present our dear Brothers, and other great Officers of the State, Members of the same, We, of our certain Knowledge, full Power and Authority Royal, have made and issued this present Edict, viz.
Whereas it is well known to all the World, that the first German Settlements made in the Island of Britain, were by Colonies of People, Subjects to our renowned Ducal Ancestors, and drawn from their Dominions, under the Conduct of Hengist, Horsa, Hella, Uffa, Cerdicus, Ida, and others; and that the said Colonies have flourished under the Protection of our august House, for Ages past, have never been emancipated therefrom, and yet have hitherto yielded little Profit to the same. And whereas We Ourself have in the last War fought for and defended the said Colonies against the Power of France, and thereby enabled them to make Conquests from the said Power in America, for which we have not yet received adequate Compensation. And whereas it is just and expedient that a Revenue should be raised from the said Colonies in Britain towards our Indemnification; and that those who are Descendants of our antient Subjects, and thence still owe us due Obedience, should contribute to the replenishing of our Royal Coffers, as they must have done had their Ancestors remained in the Territories now to us appertaining: We do therefore hereby ordain and command, That from and after the Date of these Presents, there shall be levied and paid to our Officers of the Customs, on all Goods, Wares and Merchandizes, and on all Grain and other Produce of the Earth exported from the said Island of Britain, and on all Goods of whatever Kind imported into the same, a Duty of Four and an Half per Cent. ad Valorem, for the Use of us and our Successors. And that the said Duty may more effectually be collected, We do hereby ordain, that all Ships or Vessels bound from Great Britain to any other Part of the World, or from any other Part of the World to Great Britain, shall in their respective Voyages touch at our Port of Koningsberg, there to be unladen, searched, and charged with the said Duties.
And WHEREAS there have been from Time to Time discovered in the said Island of Great Britain by our Colonists there, many Mines or Beds of Iron Stone; and sundry Subjects of our antient Dominion, skilful in converting the said Stone into Metal, have in Times past transported themselves thither, carrying with them and communicating that Art; and the Inhabitants of the said Island, presuming that they had a natural Right to make the best Use they could of the natural Productions of their Country for their own Benefit, have not only built Furnaces for smelting the said Stone into Iron, but have erected Plating Forges, Slitting Mills, and Steel Furnaces, for the more convenient manufacturing of the same, thereby endangering a Diminution of the said Manufacture in our antient Dominion. We do therefore hereby farther ordain, that from and after the Date hereof, no Mill or other Engine for Slitting or Rolling of Iron, or any Plating Forge to work with a Tilt-Hammer, or any Furnace for making Steel, shall be erected or continued in the said Island of Great Britain: And the Lord Lieutenant of every County in the said Island is hereby commanded, on Information of any such Erection within his County, to order and by Force to cause the same to be abated and destroyed, as he shall answer the Neglect thereof to Us at his Peril. But We are nevertheless graciously pleased to permit the Inhabitants of the said Island to transport their Iron into Prussia, there to be manufactured, and to them returned, they paying our Prussian Subjects for the Workmanship, with all the Costs of Commission, Freight and Risque coming and returning, any Thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.
We do not however think fit to extend this our Indulgence to the Article of Wool, but meaning to encourage not only the manufacturing of woollen Cloth, but also the raising of Wool in our antient Dominions, and to prevent both, as much as may be, in our said Island, We do hereby absolutely forbid the Transportation of Wool from thence even to the Mother Country Prussia; and that those Islanders may be farther and more effectually restrained in making any Advantage of their own Wool in the Way of Manufacture, We command that none shall be carried out of one County into another, nor shall any Worsted-Bay, or Woollen-Yarn, Cloth, Says, Bays, Kerseys, Serges, Frizes, Druggets, Cloth-Serges, Shalloons, or any other Drapery Stuffs, or Woollen Manufactures whatsoever, made up or mixt with Wool in any of the said Counties, be carried into any other County, or be Waterborne even across the smallest River or Creek, on Penalty of Forfeiture of the same, together with the Boats, Carriages, Horses, &c. that shall be employed in removing them. Nevertheless Our loving Subjects there are hereby permitted, (if they think proper) to use all their Wool as Manure for the Improvement of their Lands.
And WHEREAS the Art and Mystery of making Hats hath arrived at great Perfection in Prussia, and the making of Hats by our remote Subjects ought to be as much as possible restrained. And forasmuch as the Islanders before-mentioned, being in Possession of Wool, Beaver, and other Furs, have presumptuously conceived they had a Right to make some Advantage thereof, by manufacturing the same into Hats, to the Prejudice of our domestic Manufacture, We do therefore hereby strictly command and ordain, that no Hats or Felts whatsoever, dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be loaden or put into or upon any Vessel, Cart, Carriage or Horse, to be transported or conveyed out of one County in the said Island into another County, or to any other Place whatsoever, by any Person or Persons whatsoever, on Pain of forfeiting the same, with a Penalty of Five Hundred Pounds Sterling for every Offence. Nor shall any Hat-maker in any of the said Counties employ more than two Apprentices, on Penalty of Five Pounds Sterling per Month: We intending hereby that such Hat-makers, being so restrained both in the Production and Sale of their Commodity, may find no Advantage in continuing their Business. But lest the said Islanders should suffer Inconveniency by the Want of Hats, We are farther graciously pleased to permit them to send their Beaver Furs to Prussia; and We also permit Hats made thereof to be exported from Prussia to Britain, the People thus favoured to pay all Costs and Charges of Manufacturing, Interest, Commission to Our Merchants, Insurance and Freight going and returning, as in the Case of Iron.
And lastly, Being willing farther to favour Our said Colonies in Britain, We do hereby also ordain and command, that all the Thieves, Highway and Street-Robbers, House-breakers, Forgerers, Murderers, So[domi]tes, and Villains of every Denomination, who have forfeited their Lives to the Law in Prussia, but whom We, in Our great Clemency, do not think fit here to hang, shall be emptied out of our Gaols into the said Island of Great Britain for the BETTER PEOPLING of that Country.
We flatter Ourselves that these Our Royal Regulations and Commands will be thought just and reasonable by Our much-favoured Colonists in England, the said Regulations being copied from their own Statutes of 10 and 11 Will. III. C. 10, 5 Geo. II. C. 22, 23 Geo. II. C. 29, 4 Geo. I. C. 11, and from other equitable Laws made by their Parliaments, or from Instructions given by their Princes, or from Resolutions of both Houses entered into for the GOOD Government of their own Colonies in Ireland and America.
And all Persons in the said Island are hereby cautioned not to oppose in any wise the Execution of this Our Edict, or any Part thereof, such Opposition being High Treason, of which all who are suspected shall be transported in Fetters from Britain to Prussia, there to be tried and executed according to the Prussian Law.
Such is our Pleasure.
Given at Potsdam this twenty-fifth Day of the Month of August, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-three, and in the Thirty-third Year of our Reign.
By the King in his Council
  RECHTMAESSIG, Secr.”

Some take this Edict to be merely one of the King’s Jeux d’Esprit: Others suppose it serious, and that he means a Quarrel with England: But all here think the Assertion it concludes with, “that these Regulations are copied from Acts of the English Parliament respecting their Colonies,” a very injurious one: it being impossible to believe, that a People distinguish’d for their Love of Liberty, a Nation so wise, so liberal in its Sentiments, so just and equitable towards its Neighbours, should, from mean and injudicious Views of petty immediate Profit, treat its own Children in a Manner so arbitrary and TYRANNICAL!


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Cushing, 23 September 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Cushing, Thomas

Sir
London, Sept. 23. 1773
Nothing of Importance has occurr’d here since my last. This serves chiefly to cover a Newspaper, in which I have stated a few of the American Grievances that were omitted in my Receipt for diminishing a great Empire. These odd ways of presenting Matters to the publick View, sometimes occasion them to be more read, more talk’d of, and more attended to. With great Respect, I am, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
Honble Thos Cushing Esqr

Endorsed: Benja Franklin Sept 23. 1773 private


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Mrs. [James?] Alcock, [24 September? 1773]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Alcock, Mrs. James

Madam
[C. Sept. 24, 1773]
At the Request of Dr. Hawkesworth I am to mention to you what occurr’d to me on reading the Copy of Mr. Alcock’s Letter, and in Conversation with the Dr. on your Affairs.
There is no Grant of Land as yet to be obtained from those concern’d in the new Colony, their Grant from the Crown not having yet pass’d the Seals.
With so many Children I think your Situation will be better in Pensilvania than in London. Here you cannot get them put Apprentices to learn any Business by which they may afterwards get a reputable Living, without a considerable Premium, and maintaining them in Clothes during their Apprenticeship. In Pensilvania it is otherwise, and they may be got into sober industrious Families and taught Trades on much easier Terms: And I should think it adviseable to get them all so fix’d as soon as possible, at least the Boys; for then it will be more easy for you and Mr. A. to subsist comfortably upon his Industry and yours.
I suppose that his Acquaintance with and Dexterity in Business, may induce his being engag’d in some Store as a Storekeeper, or Clerk, and in time perhaps a Partner. And as Mrs. Hawkesworth, who I take to be one of the best Judges in such Matters, has assur’d me, that no one is better qualify’d than yourself to keep a Boarding School [for] young Ladies, I should hope, that if there [is any?] Opening for such a School in America, y[ou would?] get into that Business, as soon as you can p[rovide?] and furnish a proper House. My Son and [Daugh]ter Bache, if you apply to them in my Na[me to] consult with them, will, I am sure, give you [all the?] Advice in their Power. Wishing you a good Voyage, and a happy Sight of your Husband, I am, Madam, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin