Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Jonathan Williams, Jr., 11 December 1773
From: Williams, Jonathan Jr.
To: Franklin, Benjamin

dear and honoured Sir
Boston Decemr 11, 1773
Inclosed is a Letter from the Revd. Doctr Mather which he desired me to send to you. I am much obliged by your kindness in procuring the Organ as desired which came out in good order, except the omission of one Pipe the 11th from the lef side in the second (leaden) Stop, which I suppose the [maker?] forgot: I shall be obliged if you will please to send me the cost of it, as the Lady who it is for wants to know how much she must pay. She desired me to give her Respects to You, with assurances of her obligation for your care in giving Directions for the making of it. I have it not in my power to remit to Mr. Warren, if I had ever so much money, as Bills of Exchange are exceeding scearce and none to be had that I can find, and if there were any they would cost much above parr, so must endeavour to make up this debt [?] by greater Sums at once, when I have it in my power; And in order to enable me to do it I shall not order any Goods the coming Spring, for from appearances I have great Reason to beleive that Trade will much alter in the course [of the] Year, and by restraining my Importation for a time, I shall be able to pursue it with vigour and Reputation, as I shall not have the Burden of a dead Stock on hand. I am (tho’ much in haste) Your dutifull and Affectionate Kinsman
J Williams Junr
Compliments to all enquiring Freinds.

Addressed: To / Benjamin Franklin LLD, FRS. / at Mrs Stevensons / In Craven Street / Strand / London / Per the Hayley / Capt Scott


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Cooper, 17 December 1773
From: Cooper, Samuel
To: Franklin, Benjamin

In this letter, written the day after the Tea Party, Cooper confined himself until his conclusion to narrating the developments that culminated in destruction of the tea. His narrative is difficult to follow because it is not in chronological order; to clarify it we list the actual sequence of events.

November 3: The Sons of Liberty, knowing that the tea was soon expected and that opposition was forming in New York and Philadelphia, held a popular meeting at the Liberty Tree to force the consignees to resign. When they did not appear, the mob attacked the house where they had gathered but failed to coerce them.
  November 5, 6, 18: Three town meetings again demanded, to no avail, that the consignees resign.
  November 17: The Clarkes’ house was mobbed.
  November 19, 23, 27: In three meetings the Governor’s Council refused to take responsibility for the tea.
  November 28: The first tea ship, the Dartmouth, arrived; on the 30th she docked.
  November 29: An extra-legal mass meeting demanded that the tea be returned to England. The consignees who were still in town, after agreeing to have the tea stored until the Company sent further instructions, fled to Castle William.
  November 30: The mass meeting reconvened. The Dartmouth’s cargo was declared at the customs house and became liable to the Townshend duty; her master and Francis Rotch, her owner’s son, agreed that the tea should be returned.
  December 2: The Eleanor arrived and docked.

  December 14: Another mass meeting persuaded Rotch to ask the customs authorities for clearance for the Dartmouth to leave; they refused.
  December 15: The Beaver docked with the other two ships at Griffin’s Wharf.
  December 16: A final mass meeting heard Rotch explain why the Dartmouth could not sail, and instructed him to appeal to the Governor; when he reported back that he had done so without success, the mob of “Indians” formed.

In his concluding comments on these events Cooper echoed a number of themes that ran through the letters of Franklin’s Boston correspondents during the crisis. One was surprise: Whitehall had lulled Massachusetts with promises to alleviate the situation, and then without warning had dumped tea upon it. Another was a new sense of unity: the Bostonians, now that they had answered a call to action from other colonies and been supported by other towns in the province, had the assurance of men who no longer stood alone. A third theme, closely related to the second, was recognition that the die had been cast: Whitehall was expected to react strongly, to resort to more armed force; and force would be met with determination. “We have got into a flame,” as Cushing had said in his letter of the 10th, “and where it will End God only knows.”

December 17, 1773.
I miss’d the Opportunity of sending you the above, and am now to give you an Account of what has since happen’d among us.
Upon Information that the Tea with the American Duty upon it was certainly ship’d and might soon be expected we heard of an Opposition forming in N. York and Philadelphia, and Measures concerting there to induce a Resignation of the Consignee’s. Our Patriots, determin’d to second their Brethren in the other Colonies, appointed a Meeting of the People at Liberty Tree, at Noon Day, to receive the Resignation of the Consignees for this Province: but they chose not to appear upon this Intimation at that Place. A Committee was then chosen to wait on them at the Store [of] Mr. Clark the Eldest of them, where all the Consignees were met, to know if they would resign their Commission: a great Part of the Body, without a Vote for it, accompanied the Committee. The Answer was rough and peremptory—no Resignation. Soon after the Governor call’d a Council, and the Consignees petition’d that the Tea upon it’s Arrival might be under their Protection. The Council declin’d having any Thing to do with it. A Town Meeting was legally call’d, and respectable Committees chosen, who repeatedly attempted to obtain the almost universally desir’d Resignation, but without Effect: The Consignees insisted upon landing the Tea, tho they conceded to store it, till they could hear from their Constituents. We soon were inform’d, that the Consignees at N. York and Philadelphia behav’d in a soothing Manner to the People, and upon being assur’d that the Tea was still dutied here, declar’d without Reserve they would not have the lest Share in executing a Commission so disagreable to their Fellow Citizens. About this Time, a Number of People assembled in the Evening before Mr. Clark’s House—from which a Musket or Pistol was fired upon them, without any Damages and they in return broke his Windows and retir’d.
Soon after, the Consignees who consulted with Governor &c, in evr’y Step, retir’d to the Castle in Imitation of the Commissioners, and with similar Views and Hopes, no doubt, where they have remain’d ever since; except Mr. Joshua Winslow, who lately arriv’d from N Scotia, and lives at Marshfield.

Upon the Arrival of the Tea, an assembly of the People was call’d; it prov’d as large as any ever known here, of which Mr. Hancock was Moderator: Great Numbers from the Neighboring Towns united in it; and indeed the People in the Country have all along been equally Zealous with their Brethren in Boston in this common Cause, and there is now established a Correspondence and Union between them, never known before. The Moderator and People were strongly desirous of preserving the Tea untouch’d, for the E. India Company. They labor’d this Point with undissembled Ardor and great Patience: they consider’d however, that Landing the Tea, would ensure the Duty; that it might be smuggled from the Castle, and that the Price of Tea higher among us than to the Southward, would be an almost invincible Temptation to this. They insisted therefore it should go back in the same Bottom. They urg’d this upon the Consignees with great Earnestness, from an apprehension, that the Tea, in the present Temper of the Province, would not be safe—but in vain. They could not be perswaded to further Concession than before. The Master and Owner were then call’d, who, seing the irresistable Torrent, engag’d that the Tea should return as it came. Two other Vessels freighted with it, arrivd, and the same Engagement was made for them. There we tho’t the Matter would have ended. But the Governor, Consignees, Revenue Officers &c, rais’d obstacles to this measure, and seem’d to chuse that the Tea should be destroy’d, and the Exasperation of both Countries heighten’d. Another Assembly of the People was call’d, of which a Country Gentleman was Moderator. The Owner of the Ship first arriv’d appear’d before them, and plead that if they held him to his Engagements to carry the Tea back He should be ruin’d, for Want of Clearances &c. He was desir’d by the People to apply to the Custom House for a Clearance, which He did and was refus’d. He was then desir’d to wait on the Governor at Milton for a Pass at the Castle, which was also refus’d. The People waited for his Return till Dusk last Evening; as soon as the Governor’s Refusal was known the Assembly was dissolv’d. Just before the Dissolution, two or three hundred Persons in Dress and appearance like Indians, pass’d by the old South Meeting House where the Assembly was held, gave a War Hoop, and hasten’d to the Wharf where all the Tea Ships lay, and demanding the Tea, which was given up to them without the least Resistance, they soon emptied all the Chests into the Harbor, to the Amount of about three hundred and fourty. This was done with out Injury to any other Property, or to any Man’s Person; An Interloper indeed, who had found Means to fill his Pockets with Tea, upon being discover’d was stript of his Booty and his Cloaths together; and sent home naked. A remarkable Instance of Order and Justice, among Savages. When they had done their Business, they silently departed, and the Town has been remarkably quiet ever since. This was done last Evening, and had it been deferr’d a few Hours longer, the Tea, it was suppos’d would have been taken under the Protection of the Admiral, or the Castle. The Governor, Collector, and Consignees, most certainly had it in their Pow’r to have sav’d this Destruction, and return’d it undiminish’d to the Owner, in England, as the People were extremely desirous of this, did evr’y Thing in their Pow’r to accomplish it, and waited so long for this Purpose, as to run no small Risque of being frustrated in their grand Design of preventing it’s being landed.
The fourth and only remaining Vessel with Tea, Capt. Loring is ashore near Cape Cod, the Cargo like to be sav’d—but what will become of this Tea bro’t in that Bottom, Time will discover. We have no account that any has yet arriv’d at N.Y. or Philadelphia. It is not doubted however, that from the latter Place it will be all sent back; and should it be landed in the former, that it will remain unvended in the Fort. To the warm and violent opposition made here, the People have been partly at least excited by their Brethren in those Places, and by the Merchants in London; but the Principle upon which they acted, was, a thoro Detestation of the insidious Design of Administration, to establish and increase the American Revenue upon this Article, after fair and repeated Professions of an Intention to relieve us. In what Manner it will resent the Treatment we have given to this exasperating Measure is uncertain; but thus much is certain, that the Country is united with the Town, and the Colonies with one another, in the common Cause, more firmly than ever. Should a greater military Pow’r be sent among us, it can never alter the fix’d Sentiments of the People, tho’ [it] would increase the public Confusions, and tend to plunge both Countries into the most unhappy Circumstances. The Tories, or Tools of Hutchinson seem struck with a Pannic. Some of them own now the Impossibility of supporting the Measures of Administration, and a Necessity of their being chang’d. The longer the Governor is continu’d, the more plainly this Necessity will appear. In this View, there are some wise Friends to their Country, who do not regret his Continuance in the Chair. The last Hope of Him and his Friends is, to govern wholly by a military Pow’r.

To Dr Franklin—In addition to a Letter of Novr 10th.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Samuel Franklin, 17 December 1773
From: Franklin, Samuel
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Boston 17th Decr, 1773.
I Received your kind Letter by Mr. Danforth with the book of advice Inclos’d, for which I kindly thank you, and hope I Shall follow your good Directions. I find Still the times are hard and Dificult, but Desire to be thankfull. I Rubb along with my Neighbours. I hope Sir these Lines may find you in good health as they Leave me and my Family. My Wife and my four Daughters Joyns with me in kind Love to you and our Cozens Peirce, and we Should be glad of a few Lines from them. I Saw your Sizter Mecom a few Days ago who was better than She had been Some time. As for news, after three or four meetings of the Committes of the Near towns with a good number of the Inhabitants of Boston and our Committe they Had yesterday a grand meeting of about 5000 persons at the old South, to putt into Excecution the Sending the Ships back with the Tea and I think the Body Waited with a great deal of patience both upon the Consignees and Mr. Rotch. And finding the Governor would not give the Vessell a pass about 6 o clock the Meeting was Desolv’d and a parcell of men Calld Indians appear’d and by Nine o clock I heard that all the Tea was Destroyed by throwing it into the Sea. Such Sir is the Zeal of the Body of this people against Tea that Comes with a Duty. I Shall always be verry Glad Sir to hear from you and Remain Your Loving Kinsman
Samel Franklin
To Dr Benjamin Franklin.

Addressed: To Dr / Benjamin Franklin / in / London / per Capt Scott


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Cushing, 21 December 1773
From: Cushing, Thomas
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Boston Decr. 21. 1773
Since the Above the Teas are all destroyed but as the Vessell is just upon sailing must refer for particulars to Dr. Williamson the Bearer of this whom I recommend to your Notice and to whom I must also refer you for a particular Account of the transactions here and the other Colonies relative to this affair. I am with great respect your most humble servant
Thomas Cushing
Benjamin Franklin Esqr


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Seth Paddock, 21 December 1773
From: Paddack, Seth
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Illing[ton, Decem]ber: 21st: 1773
I Was Very Well Received Here By our Kinsman and Family and a Number of Gentlemen Farmers Who Intend to Settle in Ameria I have Given Them my Best Advice of the Country Which is to land att New Yourk Which is in the Center of America and a Fine Country all Round them. I Am Prevaild upon to Stay Here and Keep Christmass. I Have addressd: Mr: Benjn: Stead for His assistance for a Ship in the Carolina Trade as His Connections are Very Large in that Trade and Should Be Extremely obligd: to you to Send Him a line With the Inclosd: if it is no more than To lett Him Know you are my Friend. Mr: Foulger and Family Presents their Compliments to you and Mrs. Stephenson likewise mine to that Lady and am Very Respectfully Sir your most Humble Servant
Seth Paddock

Addressed: To / Benjamin Franklin Esqr / Craven Street Strand / London


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from John Ellis, 25 December 1773
From: Ellis, John
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Grays Inn Decr the 25th 1773
Mr. Ellis presents his respectful compliments to Dr. Franklin and begs he would return him the French Book upon Moco Coffee, as he intends to make some extracts from it. Dr. Fothergill being very desirous that the remarks upon Coffee should be speedily publishd. Hopes he will think of his kind promise of assisting therein, as it must speedily go to the press.

Addressed: To / Dr. Benjn. Franklin / at Mrs. Stevenson’s / in Craven Street / Strand


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Ellis, 26 December 1773
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Ellis, John

Dear Sir,
Cravenstreet Dec. 26. 73
I return the Book you were so kind to favour me with. Upon Consideration, tho’ I wish to do any thing you can be desirous I should do, I find it impossible for me to write any thing worth reading on a Subject that will be exhausted by Dr. Fothergill and yourself, who are both so much better acquainted with it. I am ever, with the greatest Respect and Esteem, Dear Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin

Addressed: To / John Ellis Esqr / Grays Inn / Mr Griffiss No 32 Fleet market
Endorsed: Decr. the 26th 1773 Benjn. Franklin


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from a Committee of the Library Company of Philadelphia, 28 December 1773
From: Library Company of Philadelphia
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir,
Philada. Decr. 28th 1773
In Behalf of the Directors of the Library Company of Philadelphia, we acknowledge the receipt of your sundry favours, particularly of the 22d August 1772 with the Books by Falconer; for observations upon which you will please to be referr’d to the last Page of the Inclosed. Mr. Bache has likewise delivered Hawkesworth’s Voyages, McPherson’s Iliad and Dalrymple’s Letters, for which additional instance of your attention to the Interest of the Company, we present our Thanks. The Directors agree with you in Sentiment concerning the Journals of the House of Commons as the opportunities of purchasing them at Auction are so frequent and the price so much lower. We should be glad to hear how soon the new Edition of the Encyclopaedia may be expected.
The Company being in want of the Books mentioned in the inclosed Catalogue, must beg your kind assistance in procuring them (with any others you may think proper for our Collection) to be sent by the first Opportunity. We should be glad with these Books to have a sketch of our Account upon receipt of which we shall be careful immediately to remit the Balance.
Since our last the Library has been removed to a new Building called The Carpenters Hall, in the Centre of the Square, in which Friends School stands; the Books (inclosed within Wire Lattices) are kept in one large Room and in another handsome Appartment the Apparatus is deposited and the Directors meet. With great Regard We are Sir Your obliged humble Servants
Robt. S Jones.Josiah Hewes.

PS. The Directors some time since sent a Catalogue of the Books in the Library, which we hope got to hand.

In Case of Doctr. Franklin’s Absence, the inclosed Catalogue of Books is recommended to Mr. Strachan, to be forwarded per first Opportunity for this place.
Samuel Rhoads
Sent per the Polly, Capt. Ayres
  Doctr. Benjamin Franklin


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, 29 December 1773
From: Barbeu-Dubourg, Jacques
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Monsieur et cher Ami
A Paris ce 29e. Xbre. 1773
Dans le moment que je traçois cette première demie ligne on m’a annoncé une persone envoyée par M. Le Prince de Conti pour me demander si j’avois reçu la description et la figure que vous m’avez promise de votre cheminée, et me prier de lui en faire part aussitôt que je l’aurai. J’ai repondu que vous sauriez incessamment l’interêt que S.A.S. y prenoit et que des que j’aurois votre reponse a ce sujet j’aurois l’honneur d’aller lui en rendre compte. Bien d’autres moins qualifiés m’en demandent tous les jours des nouvelles.
J’appris hier au soir qu’on avoit ouvert un souscription chez un Notaire pour donner un prix au meilleur memoire sur les moyens d’ecarter le tonnerre des edifices et des individus, sur quoi on s’en rapportera au jugement de l’Academie des sciences. Reste à savoir si la souscription a peine encore annoncée se remplira facilement. Je n’en desespere pourtant pas.
Si vous prenez la peine d’ouvrir l’une des volumes du journal de Medecine que je prens la liberté de vous adresser pour M. Rush vous verrez le compte qu’on y rend des experiences de Comus sur la platine. Peutetre ne savez vous pas qui est ce Comus. C’est un joueur de gobelets fort en vogue sur les boulevards, mais fort distingué dans son espece, et qui jouit d’une consideration audessus de son etat.
Vos ouvrages sont de plus en plus goûtés de tout ce qu’il y a de plus capable d’en juger dans ce pays cy et de donner le ton à la longue, mais n’ayant pas la faveur des libraires cela ne gagne pas encore beaucoup dans le public; il faut prendre patience à cet egard. Je compte que non seulement tout le monde y viendra, mais que votre patrie en profitera et sera aussi exaltée à votre occasion non seulement en france mais dans toute l’Europe qu’elle y a fait peu de sensation jusqu’a present. Beaucoup de gens commencent à s’en entretenir, et tous avec une sorte de passion favorable. Je reçois plus de complimens de ma petite preface que le plus grand ouvrage ne m’en auroit attiré dans toute ma vie. Voila ce que me vaut de planer a l’ombre de vos ailes. O, et praesidium, et dulce decus meum!
Celui qui s’est chargé de la presente, que je ne connois que depuis quelques jours qu’un ami commun me l’a adressé, a conçu le projet que je souhaite qui lui reussisse, d’aller se faire maitre de langue françoise a Londres. Il ne me paroit pas encore bien fort sur l’Anglois, mais on assure qu’il possede superieurement le talent de l’enseignement qui est une sorte de don special de la nature qui n’est pas aussi identifié qu’il sembleroit devoir l’etre avec le savoir le plus profond. Oserois-je vous demander d’avoir pour lui quelques bontés sans vous compromettre? Il a une lettre a vous remettre aussi de la part de M. Le Roy, qui le connoit peutetre depuis plus longtems ou plus à fond, et qui est d’ailleurs plus capable d’en juger.
J’ai des millions de complimens a vous faire de ma femme, de Melle. Biheron et d’une multitude de gens de tout sexe et de tout etat. Mais soyez sûr que personne ne vous est plus sincerement attaché, ne fait de voeux plus ardens pour votre conservation et votre prosperité, ne desire plus de vous embrasser cette annee pour vous repeter que je suis de toute mon ame Tout a vous
Dubourg

Mes respectueuses civilités, s’il vous plait, a Monsieur Pringle que Dieu conserve et benisse.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from John Winthrop, 31 December 1773: extract
From: Winthrop, John
To: Franklin, Benjamin

[December 31, 1773]
I concur perfectly with you in the Sentiments expressed in your last. No considerate Person, I should think, can approve of desperate Remedies, except in desperate Cases. The People of America are extreamly agitated by the repeated Efforts of Administration to subject them to absolute Power. They have been amused with Accounts of the pacific Disposition of the Ministry, and flattered with Assurances that upon their humble Petitions all their Grievances should be redressed. They have petitioned from time to time; but their Petitions have had no other Effect than to make them feel more sensibly their own Slavery. Instead of Redress, every Year has produced some new Manoeuvre, which could have no Tendency but to irritate them more and more. The last Measure of the East India Company’s sending their Tea here, subject to a Duty, seems to have given the finishing Stroke to their Patience. You will have heard of the Steps taken at Boston, New York and Philadelphia to prevent the Payment of this Duty by sending the Tea back to its Owners. But as this was found impossible at Boston, the Destruction of the Tea was the Consequence. What the Event of these Commotions will be, God only knows. The People thro’ the Colonies appear immoveably fix’d in their Resolution, that the Tea Duty shall never be paid; and if the Ministry are determin’d to inforce these Measures, I dread the Consequences: I verily fear they will turn America into a Field of Blood. But I will hope for the best.


Title: On a Proposed Act to Prevent Emigration, [December? 1773]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

The rate of emigration to America from Scotland and Ireland, particularly Ulster, increased rapidly in the years immediately before 1775. Rising rents were a principal cause, along with the unemployment that in Scotland followed the financial crisis of 1772 and in Ireland the collapse of the linen trade. By 1773 the drain of population was causing concern. In November a correspondent in The Public Advertiser, calling himself Britannus, proposed a Parliamentary ban on emigration; on December 21 another correspondent, or the same with another pseudonym, expressed surprise that no one heeded the idea.
Franklin did. He had long been interested in the growth of population, and had recently concluded that restraints put upon emigrating from Great Britain violated the subject’s natural rights. His tour of Ireland and Scotland in 1771 had exposed him to the shocking conditions of those to whom such restraints chiefly applied. The argument that peasants should be kept at home to protect them from the misery of life in America was calculated to rouse his dissent; and in the following reply to Britannus, apparently never published, he deftly combined solicitude for their present situation with propaganda for settling in America.

To the Printer of the Publick Advertiser
Sir,
[December?, 1773]
You give us in your Paper of Tuesday, the 16th of November, what is called “the Plan of an Act to be proposed at the next Meeting of Parliament to prevent the Emigration of our People.” I know not from what Authority it comes, but as it is very circumstantial, I must suppose some such Plan may be really under Consideration, and that this is thrown out to feel the Pulse of the Publick. I shall therefore, with your leave, give my Sentiments of it in your Paper.
During a Century and half that Englishmen have been at Liberty to remove if they pleased to America, we have heard of no Law to restrain that Liberty, and confine them as Prisoners in this Island. Nor do we perceive any ill Effects produced by their Emigration. Our Estates far from diminishing in Value thro’ a Want of Tenants, have been in that Period more than doubled; the Lands in general are better cultivated; their increased Produce finds ready Sale at an advanced Price, and the Complaint has for some time been, not that we want Mouths to consume our Meat, but that we want Meat for our Number of Mouths.
Why then is such a restraining Law now thought necessary? A Paragraph in the same Paper from the Edinburgh Courant may perhaps throw some Light upon this Question. We are there told “that 1500 People have emigrated to America from the Shire of Sutherland within these two Years, and carried with them £7500 Sterling; which exceeds a Years Rent of the whole County; and that the single Consideration of the Misery which most of these People must suffer in America, independent of the Loss of Men and Money to the Mother Country, should engage the Attention not only of the landed Interest, but of Administration.” The humane Writer of this Paragraph, may, I fancy, console himself, with the Reflection, that perhaps the apprehended future Sufferings of those Emigrants will never exist: for that it was probably the authentic Accounts they had received from Friends already settled there, of the Felicity to be enjoyed in that Country, with a thorough Knowledge of their own Misery at home, which induced their Removal. And, as a Politician, he may be comforted by assuring himself, that if they really meet with greater Misery in America, their future Letters lamenting it, will be more credited than the Edinburgh Courant, and effectually without a Law put a Stop to the Emigration. It seems some of the Scottish Chiefs, who delight no longer to live upon their Estates in the honourable Independence they were born to, among their respecting Tenants, but chuse rather a Life of Luxury, tho’ among the Dependants of a Court, have lately raised their Rents most grievously to support the Expence. The Consuming of those Rents in London, tho’ equally prejudicial to the poor County of Sutherland, no Edinburgh Newspaper complains of; but now that the oppressed Tenants take Flight and carry with them what might have supported the Landlords London Magnificence, he begins to feel for the MOTHER-COUNTRY, and its enormous Loss of £7500 carried to her Colonies! Administration is called upon to remedy the Evil, by another Abridgement of ENGLISH LIBERTY. And surely Administration should do something for these Gentry, as they do any thing for Administration.
But is there not an easier Remedy? Let them return to their Family Seats, live among their People, and instead of fleecing and skinning, patronize and cherish them; promote their Interest, encourage their Industry, and make their Situation comfortable. If the poor Folks are happier at home than they can be abroad, they will not lightly be prevailed with to cross the Ocean. But can their Lord blame them for leaving home in search of better Living, when he first sets them the Example?
I would consider the proposed Law,
1st. As to the NECESSITY of it.
2dly. The PRACTICABILITY.
3dly. The POLICY, if practicable.
and 4thly. The JUSTICE of it.
Pray spare me room for a few Words on each of these Heads.
 1st. As to the Necessity of it.
If any Country has more People than can be comfortably subsisted in it, some of those who are incommoded, may be induced to emigrate. As long as the new Situation shall be far preferable to the old, the Emigration may possibly continue. But when many of those who at home interfered with others of the same Rank, (in the Competition for Farms, Shops, Business, Offices, and other Means of Subsistence) are gradually withdrawn, the Inconvenience of that Competition ceases; the Number remaining no longer half starve each other, they find they can now subsist comfortably, and tho’ perhaps not quite so well as those who have left them, yet the inbred Attachment to a native Country is sufficient to overbalance a moderate Difference, and thus the Emigration ceases naturally. The Waters of the Ocean may move in Currents from one Quarter of the Globe to another, as they happen in some places to be accumulated and in others diminished; but no Law beyond the Law of Gravity, is necessary to prevent their Abandoning any Coast entirely. Thus the different Degrees of Happiness of different Countries and Situations find or rather make their Level by the flowing of People from one to another, and where that Level is once found, the Removals cease. Add to this, that even a real Deficiency of People in any Country occasioned by a wasting War or Pestilence, is speedily supply’d by earlier and of course more prolific Marriages, encouraged by the greater Facility of obtaining the Means of Subsistence. So that a Country half depopulated would soon be repeopled, till the Means of Subsistence were equalled by the Population. All Encrease beyond that Point must perish, or flow off into more favourable Situations. Such Overflowings there have been of Mankind in all Ages, or we should not now have had so many Nations. But to apprehend absolute Depopulation from that Cause, and call for a Law to prevent it, is calling for a Law to stop the Thames, lest its Waters, by what leave it daily at Gravesend, should be quite exhausted. Such a Law therefore I do not conceive to be Necessary.
 2dly. As to the Practicability.
  When I consider the Attempts of this kind that have been made, first in the time of Archbishop Laud, by Orders of Council, to stop the Puritans who were flying from his Persecutions, into New-England, and next by Louis XIV, to retain in his Kingdom the persecuted Huguenots; and how ineffectual all the Power of our Crown, with which the Archbishop armed himself, and all the more absolute Power of that great French Monarch, were, to obtain the End for which they were exerted. When I consider too, the extent of Coast to be guarded, and the Multitude of Cruizers necessary effectually to make a Prison of the Island for this confinement of free Englishmen, who naturally love Liberty, and would probably by the very Restraint be more stimulated to break thro’ it, I cannot but think such a Law IMPRACTICABLE. The Offices would not be applied to for Licences, the Ports would not be used for Embarcation. And yet the People disposed to leave us would, as the Puritans did, get away by Shipfuls.
 3dly. As to the Policy of the Law.
  Since, as I have shewn, there is no Danger of depopulating Britain, but that the Places of those who depart will soon be filled up equal to the Means of obtaining a Livelihood, let us see whether there are not some general Advantages to be expected from the present Emigration. The new Settlers in America, finding plenty of Subsistence, and Land easily acquired whereon to seat their Children, seldom postpone Marriage thro’ fear of Poverty. Their natural Increase is therefore in a proportion far beyond what it would have been if they had remained here. New Farms are daily every where forming in those immense Forests, new Towns and Villages rising; hence a growing Demand for our Merchandise, to the greater Employment of our Manufacturers and the enriching of our Merchants. By this natural Increase of People, the Strength of the Empire is increased; Men are multiplied out of whom new Armies may be formed on Occasion, or the old recruited. The long extended Sea Coast too, of that vast Country, the great maritime Commerce of its Parts with each other, its many navigable Rivers and Lakes, and its plentiful Fisheries, breed multitudes of Seamen, besides those created and supported by its Voyages to Europe; a thriving Nursery this, for the manning of our Fleets in time of War, and maintaining our Importance among foreign Nations, by that Navy which is also our best Security against invasions from our Enemies. An Extension of Empire by Conquest of inhabited Countries is not so easily obtained, it is not so easily secured, it alarms more the neighbouring States, it is more subject to Revolts, and more apt to occasion new Wars. The Increase of Dominion by Colonies proceeding from yourselves, and by the natural Growth of your own People, cannot be complained of by your Neighbours as an Injury, none have a right to be offended with it. Your new Possessions are therefore more secure, they are more cheaply gained, they are attached to your Nation by natural Alliance and Affection, and thus they afford an additional Strength more certainly to be depended on, than any that can be acquired by a Conquering Power, tho’ at an immense Expence of Blood and Treasure. These methinks are national Advantages that more than equiponderate with the Inconveniencies suffered by a few Scotch or Irish Landlords, who perhaps may only find it necessary to abate a little of their present Luxury, or of those advanced Rents they now so unfeelingly demand. From these Considerations, I think I may conclude that the restraining Law proposed, would if practicable be IMPOLITIC.
 4thly. As to the Justice of it.
  I apprehend that every Briton who is made unhappy at home, has a Right to remove from any Part of his King’s Dominions into those of any other Prince where he can be happier. If this should be denied me, at least it will be allowed that he has a Right to remove into any other Part of the same Dominions. For by this Right so many Scotchmen remove into England, easing their own Country of its supernumeraries, and benefitting ours by their Industry. And this is the Case with those who go to America. Will not these Scottish Lairds be satisfied unless a Law passes to pin down all Tenants to the Estate they are born on, (adscriptitii glebae) to be bought and sold with it? God has given to the Beasts of the Forest and to the Birds of the Air a Right when their Subsistence fails in one Country, to migrate into another, where they can get a more comfortable Living; and shall Man be denyed a Privilege enjoyed by Brutes, merely to gratify a few avaricious Landlords? Must Misery be made permanent, and suffered by many for the Emolument of One? While the Increase of Human Beings is prevented, and thousands of their Offspring stifled as it were in the Birth, that this petty Pharaoh may enjoy an Excess of Opulence? God commands to increase and replenish the Earth: The proposed Law would forbid increasing, and confine Britons to their present Number, keeping half that Number too, in wretchedness. The Common People of Britain and of Ireland, contributed by the Taxes they paid, and by the Blood they lost, to the Success of that War, which brought into our Hands the vast unpeopled Territories of North America; a Country favoured by Heaven with all the Advantages of Soil and Climate; Germans are now pouring into it, to take Possession of it, and fill it with their Posterity; and shall Britons, and Irelanders, who have a much better Right to it, be forbidden a Share of it, and instead of enjoying there the Plenty and Happiness that might reward their Industry, be compelled to remain here in Poverty and Misery? Considerations such as these persuade me, that the proposed Law would be both UNJUST and INHUMAN.
If then it is unnecessary, impracticable, impolitic, and unjust, I hope our Parliament will never receive the Bill, but leave Landlords to their own Remedy, an Abatement of Rents and Frugality of Living; and leave the Liberties of Britons and Irishmen at least as extensive as it found them. I am, Sir, Yours &c.
A Friend to the Poor.

Notation: Paper written in England by B F to discourage the intended Act for preventing Emigration


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Sir John Pringle, [December 1773?]
From: Pringle, Sir John
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Monday evening [December, 1773? ]
Dr. Pringle’s Compliments to Dr. Franklin and if he is to be at home this evening and at leisure Dr. P. will wait upon him and play at chess.
Mean while Dr. P. returns Dr. F. the French letter which he was to shew to C. Castries [?]. He sends him a small piece upon Electricity, sometime ago sent to Dr. P. from Germany, but which Dr. P. has not yet perused: Also sends Dr. F. the first sheet of his 4to edition in order for giving the measure to the intended Vignette.


Title: Notes on Colds, [1773?]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

These notes defy editing. They are hard to decipher; the ink has now faded in places to illegibility. They are on loose sheets of paper with no hint of their sequence, and frequent marginal additions have to be interpolated by guesswork. No internal evidence suggests a date, if indeed the sheets were all written at the same time. Previous editors, although they handled the notes in different ways, usually said or implied that they belonged in 1773; we follow that conjecture merely because we have no ground for a better one. Last but not least, Franklin’s meaning is often obscure and even impenetrable. His jottings were for himself, like his marginalia, but here they were no more than reminders—he knew of what, if we do not—for a treatise that he never got around to writing. They need little annotation. When they seem incomprehensible, we dare not conjecture what he had in mind; when they are clear, they are for the modern reader a mixture of medical fact and myth that requires no explanation.

  [1773?]

  Definition of a Cold.
Query.
It is a Siziness and thickness of the Blood, whereby the smaller Vessels are obstructed, and the Perspirable Matter retained, which being retained offends both by its Quantity and Quality; By Quantity as it overfills the Vessels; and by its Quality, as Part of it is acrid, and being retained produces Coughs and Sneesing by Irritation.
How this Siziness is produc’d.

1.
By being long expos’d in a Cold Air, without Exercise; cold thickens Glew.

2.
By a diminish’d Perspiration, either 1. from breathing and living in moist Air, which will not take away the P.M. [in the margin: Mem. Costiveness after much Bathing. Facts.] or 2. from a clogging of the Pores by clammy Sweat dry’d on and fastning down the Scales of the Skin; or 3. by Cold constringing the Pores partially or totally, sleeping or waking, or 4. by having [to] eat foods of too gross Particles for free Perspiration as Oisters, Pork, Ducks, &c.

3.
By Repletion, as when more is thrown into the Habit by eating and Drinking, than common Perspiration is capable of Discharging in due time [in the margin: Mem. In an approaching Cold, more water made than usual]; whence the Vessels are distended beyond their Spring, and the Quantity of contained Fluids that should be briskly moved to preserve or acquire a due Thinness, is too weighty for their Force, whence a slow Motion, thence viscidity. This Repletion is encreased by a Constipation of the Belly happening at the same time.

4.
By cooling suddenly in the Air after Exercise. Exercise quickening the Circulation, produces more perspirable Matter in a given time, than is produced in Rest. And tho’ more is likewise usually discharg’d during Exercise, yet on sudden quitting of Exercise and standing in the Air, the Circulation and Production of PM. still continuing some time, the over Quantity is retain’d. Safer to go into Water not too cold.

4
Reapers.

4.
By particular Effluvia in the Air, from some unknown Cause. General Colds thro’out a Country. By being in a Coach close or small Room with a Person had a Cold.

5.
By Relaxation of the Solids, from a Warm and moist Air, so that they are too weak to give due Motion to the Fluids.

Of Partial Colds, affecting parts of the Body.
  Causes of Feverishness attending Colds.
Ill Consequences often attending Colds, as Pleurisies, Consumptions &c. Some never take Cold, some frequently. Causes of the Difference.
Present Remedies for a Cold, should be warming, diluting bracing.
Means of preventing Colds, Temperance, Choice of Meats and Drinks, warm Rooms, and Lodging and Clothing in Winter dry Air, Care to keep the Belly open, and frequent Discharge of Water, warm Bathing to cleanse the Skin. Rubbing after Sweat, especially in the Spring.
Difficulties that first put me on thinking on this Subject.
Query.

People get cold by less and not by more viz

    by putting on a damp Shirt, on a dry Body
Yes

  by putting a dry Shirt on a wet Body, tho’ this wets the shirt ten times more
No

  by Sitting in a Room, where the Floor has been new wash’d
Yes

  by going into a River, and staying there an Hour (No Sheets so wet)
No

  by Wetting the Feet only
Yes

  by Wetting all the Clothes thro’ to the Body, and wearing them a whole Day
No

  by Sitting in a Room against a Crevice
Yes

  by Sitting as long in the open Air
No

Few of these Causes take Place, if vessels are kept Empty.
  Reapers in Pensilva.
  Drinking cold Water when they are hot
  If it makes them sweat, they are safe
  If not, they fall ill and some die
  People hot, should drink by Spoonfulls, the Reason.
  Taking Cold. The Disorder only call’d so in English, and in no other Language.
  American Indians, in the Woods, and the Whites in Imitation of them, lie with their Feet to the Fire in frosty Nights on the Ground, and take no Cold while they can keep their Feet warm.
  Feet and Hands apt to be Cold in that Disorder, and why. Is it the Siziness, or the greater Evaporation?
  Hottentots grease themselves, occasions other Evacuations more plentiful. Greasing keeps the body warm bad to hold Water too long. Parts colder when first uncloath’d than afterwards. Why?
  It was a Disgrace among the ancient Persians to cough or spit. Probably as it argu’d Intemperance.
Vessels when too full leak. Quicksilver thro’ Leather.
Thin Fluid leak’d evaporates. Corners of Eyes, &c. Sizy will not all evaporate. What’s left corrupts. Hence Consumption. Hectic Fevers from Absorption of Putrid Pus. It ferments the Blood like Yeast.
People seldom get Cold at Sea tho’ Sleep in Wet Clothes. Constant Exercise Moderate Living. Bad Cooks. Yet Air’s very moist. Wet floors. Sea surrounding, &c.
Exercise cures a Cold. Bishop Williams riding seventy Miles, from London or Exeter to Salisbury.
Bark good for a Cold taken Early.
Particular Parts more accustomed to discharge the insulating persp[irable] Matter, as under the Arms in some, Feet in others, &c.
  Exp[erimen]t of two Rasors [?].
  Every Pain or Disorder now ascrib’d to a Cold.
  It is the Covering Excuse of all Intemperance.
  Numbers of People in a close Room and exercising there, fill the Air with putrid Particles.
  People kill’d by House of Commons, breathing the Air thro’ Holes in Cieling.
  Think they get Cold by coming out of such hot Rooms they get them by being in.
  Those that live in hotter Rooms, (Stoves) get no Colds.
  Germans and all the northern People.
  Alderman and Turtle.
  People remark they were very well before a Cold and eat hearty. Wonder how they catch’d it.
Signs of Temperance
Mouth not clammy after Sleep.
Saliva thin and watery.
Eyelids not stuck together with hard Glue.
Voice clear.
No Flegm to raise.
Advice for Mode of general Temperance without appearing too singular. Supper not bad after preparatory light Dinner. May be rectify’d by slight Breakfast next Morning. He must be too full that one Excess will much disorder.
Time of Great Meal mended of late. After Dinner not fit for Business. Variation of Compass. One Hour in 20 Years.
Causes of Colds Primary and Secondary
People often don’t get Cold where they think they do, but do where they think they do not. Colds of different kinds, putrid and plethoric.
People from the Country get Cold when they come to London and Why? Full Living with moist Air. London Air generally moist why? Much [putrid Air in] London. River, etc.
Cooks and Doctors should change Maxims.
Commonsense more common among the common Scotch.

Those who dont compare cannot conceive the Difference between themselves and themselves in full [or spare] Living.
Wet Newspapers, why give Colds.
Old Librarys, and damp old Books.
Putrid Animal Matter, in Paper. Size.
Courts should not sit after Dinner. Juries fast, a good Inst[itutio]n.
Chess: Impatience of Deliberation because more difficult Writing. &c.
Most Follies arise from full Feeding. Reasons pro and con not all present. Temperate Nations wisest. Dining Entertainments bad. Rem[nant?]s of Barbarism. Expensive. Full feeding of Children stupifies. Fasting strengthens Reason rather than subdues Passion.
One Mark of Siziness in the Blood, and a Disposition to what is called a Cold, is a Froth standing on the Urine.
Scarce any Air abroad so unwholesome as Air in a c[lose] Room often breath’d.
Warm Air dissolves more Moisture than cold. In hot Countries Men wrap themselves in wet Sheets to sleep.
A general Service to redeem People from the slavish Fear of getting Cold, by showing them where the Danger is not and that where it is, ’tis in their Power to avoid it.
Surfeit, an Expression formerly us’d, now laid aside.
Costiveness occasioning Colds, how to be prevented.
Colds formerly called Rheums and Catarrhs.
Particular Foods said to engender Rheums.

Dampier, speaking of the Customs of the People at Mindanao, p. 330, says, “You see abundance of People in the River from Morning till Night washing their Bodies or Clothes. If they come into the River purposely to wash their Clothes, they strip and stand naked till they have done; then put them on and march out again.”
The Coats of the Vessel are a kind of Network, which contains the Fluids only when not so press’d as to enlarge the Pores of the Net, or when the Fluids are not so press’d as to break the Cohesion of the Globules or Particles, so as to make them small enough to come through. When the Vessels are full, occasioned by a Course of full Living, they labour in carrying on the Circulation; their Spring or Power of Contraction and Compressing the Fluids they contain, being overstrain’d is weaken’d, the Circulation proceeds more slowly, the Fluids thicken and become more gluey, both for want of due churning and because less Heat is produc’d in the Body. Such a Body requires more Aid of Clothing and Fire to preserve its warmth.
If a Person in that State of Body walks a Mile or two or uses any other Exercise that warms him, the Fluids are rarified by the Heat, distend the Vessels still more, and the thinner Parts of the Fluids in tender Places force out thro’ the Pores of the Vessels in form of a gluey Water, viz. at the Eyes, within the Nose, and within the Lungs. This in moderate Exercise.
If the Exercise is increas’d it comes thro’ every Pore in the Skin and is called Sweat.
The more volatile Parts of this extravasated Fluid, evaporate and flie off in the Air; the gluey Part remains thickens and hardens more or less as it becomes more or less dry; in the Nose and on the Lungs where Air is continually coming and going it soon becomes a Mucus, but can hardly grow dryer because surrounded with moist Parts, and supplyed with more Moisture. What ouzes out of the Corners of the Eye when shut, or in Sleep, hardens into what is called a kind of Gum, being in fact dry Glue.
This in a Morning almost stiks the Eyelids together.
With such Mucous Matter the Nose is some times almost stopped, and must be cleared by strong Blowing.
In the Windpipe and on the Lungs it gathers and is impacted, so as sometimes to induce a continual Coughing and Hawking to discharge it.
If not easily discharg’d but remaining long adhering to the Lungs, it corrupts and inflames the Parts it is in contact with [in the margin: Even behind the Ears and between other Parts of the Body so constantly in contact that the perspirable Matter, Sweat, &c. cannot easily escape from between them, the Skin is influenc’d by it, and a partial Putrefaction begins to take place], they corrupt and ulcerate. The Vessels being thus wounded discharge greater and continual Quantities. Hence Consumptions.
Part of the corrupted Matter absorb’d again by the Vessels and mix’d with the Blood occasions Hectic Fevers.
When the Body has sweated, not from a dissolution of Fluids, but from the Force above mention’d, as the Sweat dries off, some clammy Substance remains in the Pores, which closes many of them wholly or in part.
The subsequent Perspiration is hereby lessened.
The Perspirable Matter consists of Parts approaching to Putrefaction, and therefore destin’d by Nature to be thrown off, that living Bodies might not putrify, which otherwise from their Warmth and Moisture they would be apt to do. [In the margin: The more Food eaten the more corrupted Particles to perspire.]
These corrupting Particles if continually thrown off, the remainder of the Body continues uncorrupt, or approaches no nearer to a State of Putrefaction. Just as in Boiling Water, no greater degree of Heat than the Boiling Heat can be requir’d; because the Particles that grow hotter, as fast as they become so, flie off in Vapour.
But if the Vapour could be retain’d Water might be made much hotter, perhaps red hot, as Oil may, which is not so subject to Evaporation. So if the Perspirable Matter is retain’d, it remixes with the Blood, and produces first a slight putrid Fever attending always what we call a Cold, and when retain’d in a great Degree more mischievous putrid Diseases.
In hot Countries, Exercise of Body with the Heat of the Climate create much of this putrid perspirable Matter, which ought to be discharg’d. A check in those Countries very pernicious. Putrid Malignant Violent Fevers and speedy Death the Consequence.
Its Discharge is also check’d another Way, besides that of closing the Pores, viz. by being in an Air already full of it, as in close Rooms containing great Numbers of People, Playhouses, Ball Rooms, &c.
For Air containing a Quantity of any kind of Vapour, becomes thereby less capable of imbibing more of that Vapour, and finally will take no more of it.
If the Air will not take it off from the Body it must remain in the Body; and the Perspiration is as effectually stopt and the perspirable Matter as certainly retain’d as if the Pores were all stopt.
A Lock of wet Wool contain’d in a Nutmeg Grater, may dry, parting with its Moisture thro’ the Holes of the Grater. But if you stop all those Holes with Wax it will never dry.
Nor if expos’d to the open Air will it dry when the Air is as moist as itself. On the contrary if already dry, and expos’d to moist Air, it would acquire Moisture.
Thus People in Rooms heated by a Multitude of People, find their own Bodies heated, thence the quantity of perspirable Matter is increased that should be discharged but the Air not being changed grows so full of the same Matter, that it will receive no more. So the Body must retain it. The Consequence is, that next Day, perhaps sooner, a slight putrid Fever comes on, with all the Marks of what we call a Cold, and the Disorder is suppos’d to be got by coming out of a Warm Room, whereas it was really taken while in that Room.
Putrid Ferments beget their likes. Small Pox. Wet rotten Paper, containing corrupt Glue. The Cold Fever communicable by the Breath to others, &c.
Urine retain’d occasions Sneezing &c.
Coughing and Spitting continually Marks of Intemperance.
People eat much more than is necessary.
Proportionable Nourishment and strength is not drawn from great Eating.
The succeeding Meals force the preceding thro’ half undigested.
Small Meals continue longer in the Body, and are more thoroughly digested.
The Vessels being roomy can bear and receive without Hurt an accidental Excess.
They can convert[?] more easily.
There is less Quantity of corrupting Particles produc’d.
Putrid Fish very bad.
Black [Hole in the Indies.]


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Anthony Todd, [1773?]: résumé
From: Todd, Anthony
To: Franklin, Benjamin

<1773? A note in the third person: thanks Franklin “for the Paragraphs which seem to be perfectly right”; the New York packet will sail, wind permitting, when tonight’s mail reaches Falmouth.>


Title: The Hutchinson-Oliver Letters: Editorial Introduction
From:
To:

The letters from Hutchinson, Oliver, and others, when they were printed in Boston in June, 1773, had such an impact on Franklin’s career that we are publishing them as an appendix to this volume of his papers. They do not fall within our usual rubric, because they had no bearing on his actions or thoughts at the time they were written; for that reason we keep our annotation to a minimum. But the letters have not
been reprinted in more than a century, and they played a key role in the last fifteen months of Franklin’s British mission. They led directly to the petition from the Massachusetts House for the removal of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor; the petition, in turn, produced the hearing before the Privy Council in January, 1774, at which Solicitor General Wedderburn used the letters as text for a tongue-lashing that was the one great public humiliation of Franklin’s life. The chickens that had been dispatched to Boston under a pledge of secrecy came home to roost in London in a blaze of attention.
We have already discussed the mysterious circumstances in which Franklin acquired the correspondence, and said something about its contents. Hutchinson and Oliver were important local officials at that time, it must be remembered, but did not become governor and lieutenant governor until 1771. Their conduct thereafter was irrelevant to the petition, which charged them solely with having written letters, in 1767–69, that “tended” to deter the King from hearing the grievances of his colony and to exacerbate friction between it and the mother country. In those years the violence and threats that were in the air of Boston gave many of its citizens good reason to be disturbed. The framework of society seemed to be dissolving, and conservatives naturally looked to Britain to restore order, by force if need be; where else could they look? The writers repeatedly made clear, however, that they did not blame the people at large, but only a few firebrands among them.
When Hutchinson and Oliver painted the situation in the darkest colors, as they certainly did, the reason may have been that they saw it that way; or they may have exaggerated for the purpose of provoking British intervention. They harp on five interrelated forms of intervention that they would clearly welcome: the customs commissioners require protection; something must be done to counteract the nonimportation agreements; the governor should receive a salary from the crown to strengthen his hand; troops are needed to maintain order; constitutional changes may be advisable. Although few specific remedies are suggested, the call for strong measures is unmistakable.
No one with a traditional view of the constitution doubted that such measures were well within the government’s legal authority. Franklin and his constituents, on the other hand, believed that asking for them was attempting to subvert the constitution, and the petition charged Hutchinson and Oliver, in effect, with having made that attempt. Was the charge well founded? Franklin obviously thought so, or he would never have sent the letters in the first place; and their reception in Boston proves that many Americans agreed with him. Others did not, and in England the prevalent view was just the opposite: that the letters were private and innocuous, and that Franklin had played the part of a vicious trouble-maker. This clash of opinion has persisted for two centuries. The letters are open to diverse interpretations, and still challenge readers to form their own.


Title: Thomas Hutchinson to ——, 18 June 1768
From: Hutchinson, Thomas
To:

Sir,
Boston, 18th June 1768.
As you allow me the honour of your correspondence, I may not omit acquainting you with so remarkable an event as the withdraw of the commissioners of the customs and most of the other officers under them from the town on board the Romney, with an intent to remove from thence to the castle.
In the evening of the 10th a sloop belonging to Mr. Hancock, a representative for Boston, and a wealthy merchant, of great influence over the populace, was seized by the collector and comptroller for a very notorious breach of the acts of trade, and, after seizure taken into custody by the officer of the Romney man of war, and remov’d under command of her guns. It is pretended that the removal and not the seizure incensed the people. It seems not very material which it was. A mob was immediately rais’d, the Officers insulted, bruis’d and much hurt, and the windows of some of their houses broke; a boat belonging to the collector burnt in triumph, and many threats utter’d against the commissioners and their officers: no notice being taken of their extravagance in the time of it, nor any endeavours by any authority except the governor, the next day to discover and punish the offenders; and there being a rumour of a higher mob intended monday (the 13th) in the evening the commissioners, four of them, thought themselves altogether unsafe, being destitute of protection, and remov’d with their families to the Romney, and there remain and hold their board, and next week intend to do the same, and also open the custom-house at the castle. The governor press’d the council to assist him with their advice, but they declin’d and evaded calling it a brush or small disturbance by boys and negroes, not considering how much it must be resented in England that the officers of the crown should think themselves obliged to quit the place of their residence and go on board a King’s ship for safety, and all the internal authority of the province take no notice of it. The town of Boston have had repeated meetings, and by their votes declared the commissioners and their officers a great grievance, and yesterday instructed their representatives to endeavor that enquiry should be made by the assembly whether any person by writing or in any other way had encouraged the sending troops here, there being some alarming reports that troops are expected, but have not taken any measures to discountenance the promoters of the late proceedings; but on the contrary appointed one or more of the actors or abettors on a committee appointed to wait on the governor, and to desire him to order the man of war out of the harbour.
Ignorant as they be, yet the heads of a Boston town-meeting influence all public measures.
It is not possible this anarchy should last always. Mr. Hallowell who will be the bearer of this tells me he has the honor of being personally known to you. I beg leave to refer you to him for a more full account. I am, with great esteem, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant,
Tho. Hutchinson.


Title: Thomas Hutchinson to ——, August 1768
From: Hutchinson, Thomas
To:

Sir,
Boston, August 1768.
It is very necessary other information should be had in England of the present state of the commissioners of the customs than what common fame will bring to you or what you will receive from most of the letters which go from hence, people in general being prejudiced by many false reports and misrepresentations concerning them. Seven eighths of the people of the country suppose the board itself to be unconstitutional and cannot be undeceived and brought to believe that a board has existed in England all this century, and that the board established here has no new powers given to it. Our incendiaries know it but they industriously and very wickedly publish the contrary. As much pains has been taken to prejudice the country against the persons of the commissioners and their characters have been misrepresented and cruelly treated especially since their confinement at the castle where they are not so likely to hear what is said of them and are not so able to confute it.
It is not pretended they need not to have withdrawn, that Mr. Williams had stood his ground without any injury although the mob beset his house, &c. There never was that spirit raised against the under officers as against the commissioners, I mean four of them. They had a public affront offered them by the town of Boston who refused to give the use of their hall for a public dinner unless it was stipulated that the commissioners should not be invited. An affront of the same nature at the motion of Mr. Hancock was offered by a company of cadets. Soon after a vessel of Mr. Hancock’s being seized the officers were mobb’d and the commissioners were informed they were threatned. I own I was in pain for them. I do not believe if the mob had seized them, there was any authority able and willing to have rescued them. After they had withdrawn the town signified to the governor by a message that it was expected or desired they should not return. It was then the general voice that it would not be safe for them to return. After all this the sons of liberty say they deserted or abdicated.
The other officers of the customs in general either did not leave the town or soon returned to it. Some of them seem to be discontented with the commissioners. Great pains have been taken to increase the discontent. Their office by these means is rendered extremely burdensome. Every thing they do is found fault with, and yet no particular illegality or even irregularity mentioned. There is too much hauteur some of their officers say in the treatment they receive. They say they treat their officers as the commissioners treat their officers in England and require no greater deference. After all it is not the persons but the office of the commissioners which has raised this spirit, and the distinction made between the commissioners is because it has been given out that four of them were in favor of the new establishment and the fifth was not. If Mr. Hallowell arrived safe he can inform you many circumstances relative to this distinction which I very willingly excuse myself from mentioning.
I know of no burden brought upon the fair trader by the new establishment. The illicit trader finds the risque greater than it used to be, especially in the port where the board is constantly held. Another circumstance which increases the prejudice is this; the new duties happened to take place just about the time the commissioners arrived. People have absurdly connected the duties and board of commissioners, and suppose we should have had no additional duties if there had been no board to have the charge of collecting them. With all the aid you can give to the officers of the crown they will have enough to do to maintain the authority of government and to carry the laws into execution. If they are discountenanced, neglected or fail of support from you, they must submit to every thing the present opposers of government think fit to require of them.
There is no office under greater discouragements than that of the commissioners. Some of my friends recommended me to the ministry. I think myself very happy that I am not one. Indeed it would have been incompatible with my post as chief justice, and I must have declined it, and I should do it although no greater salary had been affixed to the chief justices place than the small pittance allowed by the province.
From my acquaintance with the commissioners I have conceived a personal esteem for them, but my chief inducement to make this representation to you is in regard to the public interest which I am sure will suffer if the opposition carry their point against them. I am with very great esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,
Tho. Hutchinson.

August 10. Yesterday at a meeting of the merchants it was agreed by all present to give no more orders for goods from England, nor receive any on commission until the late acts are repealed. And it is said all except sixteen in the town have subscribed an engagement of that tenor. I hope the subscription will be printed that I may transmit it to you.


Title: Thomas Hutchinson to ——, 4 October 1768
From: Hutchinson, Thomas
To:

Dear Sir,
Boston, 4th October 1768.
I was absent upon one of our circuits when Mr. Byles arrived. Since my return I have received from him your obliging letter of 31st July. I never dared to think what the resentment of the nation would be upon Hallowell’s arrival. It is not strange that measures should be immediately taken to reduce the colonies to their former state of government and order, but that the national funds should be effected by it is to me a little mysterious and surprizing. Principles of government absurd enough, spread thro’ all the colonies; but I cannot think that in any colony, people of any consideration have ever been so mad as to think of a revolt. Many of the common people have been in a frenzy, and talk’d of dying in defence of their liberties, and have spoke and printed what is highly criminal, and too many of rank above the vulgar, and some in public posts have countenanced and encouraged them untill they increased so much in their numbers and in their opinion of their importance as to submit to government no further than they thought proper. The legislative powers have been influenced by them, and the executive powers intirely lost their force. There has been continual danger of mobs and insurrections, but they would have spent all their force within ourselves, the officers of the Crown and some of the few friends who dared to stand by them possibly might have been knock’d in the head, and some such fatal event would probably have brought the people to their senses. For four or five weeks past the distemper has been growing, and I confess I have not been without some apprehensions for myself, but my friends have had more for me, and I have had repeated and frequent notices from them from different quarters, one of the last I will inclose to you. In this state of things there was no security but quitting my posts, which nothing but the last extremity would justify. As chief justice for two years after our first disorders I kept the grand juries tollerably well to their duty. The last spring there had been several riots, and a most infamous libel had been published in one of the papers, which I enlarged upon, and the grand jury had determined to make presentments, but the attorney-general not attending them the first day, Otis and his creatures who were alarmed and frightned exerted themselves the next day and prevailed upon so many of the jury to change their voices, that there was not a sufficient number left to find a bill. They have been ever since more enraged against me than ever. At the desire of the governor I committed to writing the charge while it lay in my memory, and as I have no further use for it I will inclose it as it may give you some idea of our judicatories.
Whilst we were in this state, news came of two regiments being ordered from Halifax, and soon after two more from Ireland. The minds of people were more and more agitated, broad hints were given that the troops should never land, a barrel of tar was placed upon the beacon, in the night to be fired to bring in the country when the troops appeared, and all the authority of the government was not strong enough to remove it. The town of Boston met and passed a number of weak but very criminal votes; and as the governor declined calling an assembly they sent circular letters to all the towns and districts to send a person each that there might be a general consultation at so extraordinary a crisis. They met and spent a week, made themselves ridiculous, and then dissolv’d themselves, after a message or two to the governor which he refused to receive; a petition to the King which I dare say their agents will never be allow’d to present, and a result which they have published ill-natured and impotent.
In this confusion the troops from Halifax arrived. I never was much afraid of the people’s taking arms, but I was apprehensive of violence from the mob, it being their last chance before the troops could land. As the prospect of revenge became more certain their courage abated in proportion. Two regiments are landed, but a new grievance is now rais’d. The troops are by act of parliament to be quartered no where else but in the barracks until they are full. There are barracks enough at the castle to hold both regiments. It is therefore against the act to bring any of them into town. This was started by the council in their answer to the governor, which to make themselves popular, they in an unprecedented way published and have alarmed all the province; for although none but the most contracted minds could put such a construction upon the act, yet after this declaration of the council nine tenths of the people suppose it just. I wish the act had been better express’d, but it is absurd to suppose the parliament intended to take from the King the direction of his forces by confining them to a place where any of the colonies might think fit to build barracks. It is besides ungrateful, for it is known to many that this provision was brought into the bill after it had been framed without it, from meer favor to the colonies. I hear the commander in chief has provided barracks or quarters, but a doubt still remains with some of the council, whether they are to furnish the articles required, unless the men are in the province barracks, and they are to determine upon it to day.
The government has been so long in the hands of the populace that it must come out of them by degrees, at least it will be a work of time to bring the people back to just notions of the nature of government.
Mr. Pepperrell a young gentleman of good character, and grandson and principal heir to the late Sir William Pepperrell being bound to London, I shall deliver this letter to him, as it will be too bulky for postage, and desire him to wait upon you with it. I am with very great esteem, Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant,
Tho. Hutchinson.


Title: Thomas Hutchinson to ——, 10 December 1768
From: Hutchinson, Thomas
To:

Dear Sir,
Boston, 10th December 1768.
I am just now informed that a number of the council, perhaps 8 or 10 who live in and near this town, have met together and agreed upon a long address or petition to parliament, and that it will be sent by this ship to Mr. Bollan to be presented. Mr. Danforth who is president of the council told the governor upon enquiry, that it was sent to him to sign, and he supposed the rest of the council who had met together would sign after him in order, but he had since found that they had wrote over his name by order of council, which makes it appear to be an act of council. This may be a low piece of cunning in him, but be it as it may, it’s proper it should be known that the whole is no more than the doings of a part of the council only, although even that is not very material, since, if they had all been present without the governor’s summons the meeting would have been irregular and unconstitutional, and ought to be discountenanced and censured. I suppose there is no instance of the privy council’s meeting and doing business without the king’s presence or special direction, except in committees upon such business as by his majesty’s order has been referr’d to them by an act of council, and I have known no instance here without the governor until within three or four months past.
I thought it very necessary the circumstances of this proceeding should be known, tho’ if there be no necessity for it, I think it would be best it should not be known that the intelligence comes from me. I am with very great regard, Sir, your most humble and most obedient Servant,
Tho. Hutchinson.


Title: Thomas Hutchinson to ——, 20 January 1769
From: Hutchinson, Thomas
To:

Dear Sir,
Boston, 20th January 1769.
You have laid me under very great obligations by the very clear and full account of proceedings in parliament, which I received from you by Capt. Scott. You have also done much service to the people of the province. For a day or two after the ship arrived, the enemies of government gave out that their friends in parliament were increasing, and all things would be soon on the old footing; in other words that all acts reposing duties would be repealed, the commissioners board dissolved, the customs put on the old footing, and illicit trade be carried on with little or no hazard. It was very fortunate that I had it in my power to prevent such a false representation from spreading through the province. I have been very cautious of using your name, but I have been very free in publishing abroad the substance of your letter, and declaring that I had my intelligence from the best authority, and have in a great measure defeated the ill design in raising and attempting to spread so groundless a report. What marks of resentment the parliament will show, whether they will be upon the province in general or particular persons, is extremely uncertain, but that they will be placed somewere is most certain, and I add, because I think it ought to be so that those who have been most steady in preserving the constitution and opposing the licenciousness of such as call themselves sons of liberty will certainly meet with favor and encouragement.
This is most certainly a crisis. I really wish that there may not have been the least degree of severity beyond what is absolutely necessary to maintain, I think I may say to you the dependance which a colony ought to have upon the parent State; but if no measures shall have been taken to secure this dependance, or nothing more than some declaratory acts or resolves, it is all over with us. The friends of government will be utterly disheartned, and the friends of anarchy will be afraid of nothing be it ever so extravagant.
The last vessel from London had a quick passage. We expect to be in suspense for the three or four next weeks and then to hear our fate. I never think of the measures necessary for the peace and good order of the colonies without pain. There must be an abridgment of what are called English liberties. I relieve myself by considering that in a remove from the state of nature to the most perfect state of government there must be a great restraint of natural liberty. I doubt whether it is possible to project a system of government in which a colony 3000 miles distant from the parent state shall enjoy all the liberty of the parent state. I am certain I have never yet see the projection. I wish the good of the colony when I wish to see some further restraint of liberty rather than the connexion with the parent state should be broken; for I am sure such a breach must prove the ruin of the colony. Pardon me this excursion, it really proceeds from the state of mind into which our perplexed affairs often throw me. I have the honor to be with very great esteem, Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant,
Tho. Hutchinson.


Title: Andrew Oliver to ——, 7 May 1767
From: Oliver, Andrew
To:

Sir,
Boston, 7th May 1767.
I am indebted to you for the obliging manner in which you receiv’d my recommendation of my good friend Mr. Paxton, as well as for the account you are pleased to send me of the situation of affairs in the mother country.

I am very sorry that the colonies give you so much employment, and it is impossible to say how long it will be before things settle into quiet among us. We have some here who have been so busy in fomenting the late disturbances, that they may now think it needful for their own security to keep up the spirit. They have plumed themselves much upon the victory they have gained, and the support they have since met with; nor could any thing better shew what they would still be at, than the manner in which by their own account published in the news-papers last August they celebrated the 14th of that month, as the first anniversary commemoration of what they had done at the tree of liberty on that day the year before. Here a number of respectable gentlemen as they inform us now met, and among other toasts drank general Paoli, and the spark of liberty kindled in Spain. I am now speaking of a few individuals only, the body of the people are well disposed, yet when you come to see the journal of the house of representatives the last session, I fear you will think that the same spirit has seized our public counsels. I can however fairly say thus much in behalf of the government, that the last house was packed by means of a public proscription just before the election, of the greatest part of those who had appeared in the preceding session in the support of government: their names were published in an inflammatory news-paper, and their constituents made to believe they were about to sell them for slaves. Writs are now out for a new assembly, but I cannot answer for the choice: I hope however that the people in general are in a better temper; yet the moderate men have been so browbeaten in the house, and found themselves so insignificant there the last year, that some of them will voluntary decline coming again. I thinks this looks too much like a despair of the common-wealth, and cannot be justified on patriotic principles.
The election of counsellors was carried the last year as might have been expected from such an house. The officers of the crown and the judges of the superior court were excluded. And I hear that it is the design of some who expect to be returned members of the house this year to make sure work at the ensuing election of counsellors, by excluding, if they can, the gentlemen of the council (who by charter remain such ’till others are chosen in their room) from any share in the choice, tho’ they have always had their voice in it hitherto from the first arrival of the charter. If the house do this, they will have it in their power to model the council as they please, and throw all the powers of government into the hands of the people, unless the governor should again exert his negative as he did the last year.
You have doubtless seen some of the curious messages from the late house to the governor, and can’t but have observed with how little decency they have attacked both the governor and the lieutenant governor. They have also in effect forced the council to declare themselves parties in the quarrel they had against the latter in a matter of mere indifference. In their message to the governor of the 31st of January they have explicitly charged the lieutenant governor (a gentleman to whom they are more indebted than to any one man in the government) with “ambition and lust of power”, merely for paying a compliment to the governor agreeable to ancient usage, by attending him to court and being present in the council-chamber when he made his speech at the opening of the session; at which time they go on to say, “none but the general court and their servants are intended to be present”, still holding out to the people the servants of the crown as objects of insignificance, ranking the secretary with their door-keeper, as servants of the assembly; for the secretary with his clerks and the door-keeper are the only persons present with the assembly on these occasions.
The officers of the crown being thus lessen’d in the eyes of the people, takes off their weight and influence, and the balance will of course turn in favor of the people, and what makes them still more insignificant is their dependance on the people for a necessary support: If something were left to the goodwill of the people, yet nature should be sure of a support. The governor’s salary has for about 35 years past been pretty well understood to be a thousand pound a year sterling. When this sum was first agreed to, it was very well; but an increase of wealth since has brought along with it an increase of luxury, so that what was sufficient to keep up a proper distinction and support the dignity of a governor then, may well be supposed to be insufficient for the purpose now. The lieutenant governor has no appointments as such: the captaincy of Castle-William which may be worth £120 sterling a year is looked upon indeed as an appendage to his commission, and the late lieutenant governor enjoyed no other appointment: he lived a retired life upon his own estate in the country, and was easy. The present lieutenant governor indeed has other appointments, but the people are quarrelling with him for it, and will not suffer him to be easy unless he will retire also.
The secretary may have something more than £200 a year sterling, but has for the two last years been allowed £60 lawful money a year less than had been usual for divers years preceding, tho’ he had convinced the house by their committee that without this deduction he would have had no more than £250 sterling per annum in fees, perquisites and salary altogether, which is not the one half of his annual expence.
The crown did by charter reserve to itself the appointment of a governor, lieutenant governor and secretary: the design of this was without doubt to maintain some kind of balance between the powers of the crown and of the people; but if officers are not in some measure independent of the people (for it is difficult to serve two masters) they will sometimes have a hard struggle between duty to the crown and a regard to self, which must be a very disagreeable situation to them, as well as a weakening to the authority of government. The officers of the crown are very few and are therefore the more easily provided for without burdening the people: and such provision I look upon as necessary to the restoration and support of the King’s authority.
But it may be said how can any new measures be taken without raising new disturbances? The manufacturers in England will rise again and defeat the measures of government. This game ’tis true has been played once and succeeded, and it has been asserted here, that it is in the power of the colonies at any time to raise a rebellion in England by refusing to send for their manufactures. For my own part I do not believe this. The merchants in England, and I don’t know but those in London and Bristol only, might always govern in this matter and quiet the manufacturer. The merchant’s view is always to his own interest. As the trade is now managed, the dealer here sends to the merchant in England for his goods; upon these goods the English merchant puts a profit of 10 or more probably of 15 per cent when he sends them to his employer in America. The merchant is so jealous of foregoing this profit, that an American trader cannot well purchase the goods he wants of the manufacturer; for should the merchant know that the manufacturer had supplied an American, he would take off no more of his wares. The merchants therefore having this profit in view will by one means or other secure it. They know the goods which the American market demands, and may therefore safely take them off from the manufacturer, tho’ they should have no orders for shipping them this year or perhaps the next; and I dare say, it would not be longer before the Americans would clamour for a supply of goods from England, for it is vain to think they can supply themselves. The merchant might then put an advanced price upon his goods, and possibly be able to make his own terms; or if it should be thought the goods would not bear an advanced price to indemnify him, it might be worth while for the government to agree with the merchants before hand to allow them a premium equivalent to the advance of their stock, and then the game would be over.
I have wrote with freedom in confidence of my name’s not being used on the occasion. For though I have wrote nothing but what in my conscience I think an American may upon just principles advance, and what a servant of the crown ought upon all proper occasions to suggest, yet the many prejudices I have to combat with may render it unfit it should be made public.
I communicated to governor Bernard what you mentioned concerning him, who desires me to present you his compliments, and let you know that he is obliged to you for the expressions of your regard for his injured character. I am with great respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
Andw. Oliver.

I ask your acceptance of a journal of the last session which is put up in a box directed to the secretary of the board of trade.


Title: Andrew Oliver to ——, 12 August 1769
From: Oliver, Andrew
To:

Sir,
New-York, 12th August, 1769.
I have been in this city for some time past executing (with others) his Majesty’s commission for settling the boundary between this province and that of New-Jersey. I left Boston the 11th July, since which my advices from London have come to me very imperfect; but as my friend Mr. Thompson writes me that he had drawn up my case and with your approbation laid it before the D. of Grafton, I think it needful once more to mention this business to you.
There was a time when I thought the authority of government might have been easily restored; but while it’s friends and the officers of the crown are left to an abject dependance on these very people who are undermining it’s authority; and while these are suffered not only to go unpunished, but on the contrary meet with all kind of support and encouragement, it cannot be expected that you will ever again recover that respect which the colonies had been wont to pay the parent state. Government at home will deceive itself, if it imagines that the taking off the duty on glass, paper and painter’s colors will work a reconciliation, and nothing more than this, as I can learn, is proposed in Ld. H’s late circular letter. It is the principle that is now disputed; the combination against importation extends to tea, although it comes cheaper than ever, as well as to the other forementioned articles. In Virginia it is extended lately to wines; and I have heard one of the first leaders in these measures in Boston say, that we should never be upon a proper footing ’till all the revenue acts from the 15th Charles 2d were repealed. Our assembly in the Massachusetts may have been more illiberal than others in their public messages and resolves; yet we have some people among us still who dare to speak in favor of government: But here I do not find so much as one, unless it be some of the King’s servants; and yet my business here leads me to associate with the best. They universally approve of the combination against importing of goods from Great-Britain, unless the revenue acts are repealed, which appears to me little less than assuming a negative on all acts of parliament which they do not like! They say expressly, we are bound by none made since our emigration, but such as our own convenience we choose to submit to; such for instance as that for establishing a post-office. The Bill of Rights and the Habeas Corpus Acts, they say are only declaratory of the common law which we brought with us.
Under such circumstance as these, why should I wish to expose myself to popular resentment? Were I to receive any thing out of the revenue, I must expect to be abused for it. Nor do I find that our chief justice has received the £200 granted him for that service; and yet the assembly have this year withheld his usual grant, most probably because he has such a warrant from the crown.
With regard to my negociations with Mr. Rogers, I did in conformity to your opinion make an apology to Mr. Secretary Pownall for mentioning it, and there submitted it. I hear it has been since talk’d of; but unless I could be assured in one shape or other of £300 per annum, with the other office, I would not chuse to quit what I have. I have no ambition to be distinguished, if I am only to be held up as a mark of popular envy or resentment. I was in hopes before now through the intervention of your good offices to have received some mark of favor from your good friend; but the time is not yet come to expect it through that channel! I will however rely on your friendship, whenever you can with propriety appear in forwarding my interest, or preventing any thing that may prove injurious to it.
If Mr. R. has interest enough to obtain the secretary’s place, I shall upon receiving proper security think myself in honour bound to second his views, though I have none at present from him but a conditional note he formerly wrote me. If he is not like to succeed, and my son Daniel could have my place, I would be content unless affairs take a different turn to resign in his favor, whether administration should think proper to make any further provision for me or not. And yet I never thought of withdrawing myself from the service, while there appeared to me any prospect of my being able to promote it.
If I have wrote with freedom, I consider I am writing to a friend, and that I am perfectly safe in opening myself to you. I am, with great respect, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Andw. Oliver.


Title: Charles Paxton to ——, 20 June 1768
From: Paxton, Charles
To:

Dear Sir,
On board his Majesty’s Ship Romney, Boston Harbour, 20th June, 68.
The commissioners of the customs have met with every insult since their arrival at Boston, and at last have been obliged to seek protection on board his Majesty’s ship Romney: Mr. Hallowell, the comptroller of the customs who will have the honor to deliver you this Letter, will inform you of many particulars; he is sent by the Board with their letters to Government. Unless we have immediately two or three regiments, ’tis the opinion of all the friends to government, that Boston will be in open rebellion. I have the honor to be with the greatest respect and warmest regard, Dear Sir, Your most faithful and oblig’d servant,
Chas. Paxton.


Title: Nathaniel Rogers to ——, 12 December 1768
From: Rogers, Nathaniel
To:

My Dear Sir,
Boston, Decem. 12th 1768.
I Wrote you a few days ago, and did not then think of troubling you upon any private affair of mine, at least not so suddenly; but within this day or two, I have had a conversation with Mr. Oliver, secretary of the province, the design of which was my succeeding to the post he holds from the crown, upon the idea, that provision would be made for governor Bernard, and the lieutenant governor would succeed to the chair, then the secretary is desirous of being lieutenant governor, and if in any way, three hundred pounds a year could be annexed to the appointment. You are sensible the appointment is in one department, and the grant of money in another; now the present lieutenant governor has an assignment of £200 a year upon the customs here; he has not received any thing from it as yet, and is doubtful if he shall; he has no doubt of its lapse to the crown, if he has the chair; if then by any interest that sum could be assigned to Mr. Oliver as lieutenant governor, and if he should be allowed (as has been usual for all lieutenant governors) to hold the command of the castle, that would be another £100. This would compleat the secretary’s views; and he thinks his public services, the injuries he has received in that service, and the favorable sentiments entertained of him by government, may lead him to these views, and he hopes for the interest of his friends. The place of secretary is worth £300 a year, but is a provincial grant at present, so that it will not allow to be quartered on: And as I had view upon the place when I was in England, and went so far as to converse with several men of interest upon it, tho’ I never had an opportunity to mention it to you after I recovered my illness, I hope you will allow me your influence, and by extending it at the treasury, to facilitate the assignment of the £200 a year, it will be serving the secretary, and it will very much oblige me. The secretary is advanced in life, tho’ much more so in health, which has been much impaired by the injuries he received, and he wishes to quit the more active scenes; he considers this as a kind of otium cum dignitate, and from merits one may think he has a claim to it. I will mention to you the gentlemen, who are acquainted with my views and whose favourable approbation I have had. Governor Pownall, Mr. John Pownall, and Dr. Franklin. My lord Hillsborough is not unacquainted with it. I have since I have been here, wrote Mr. Jackson upon the subject, and have by this vessel wrote Mr. Mauduit. I think my character stands fair. I have not been without application to public affairs, and have acquired some knowledge of our provincial affairs, and notwithstanding our many free conversations in England, I am considered here as on government side, for which I have been often traduced both publickly and privately, and very lately have had two or three slaps. The governor and lieutenant governor are fully acquainted with the negociation, and I meet their approbation; all is upon the idea the governor is provided for, and there shall by any means be a vacancy of the lieut. governor’s place. I have gone so far, as to say to some of my friends, that rather than not succeed I would agree to pay the secretary £100 a year out of the office to make up £300, provided he could obtain only the assignment of £200, but the other proposal would to be sure be most eligible. I scarce know any apology to make for troubling you upon the subject; the friendship you shewed me in London, and the favourable expressions you made use of to the lieut. governor in my behalf encourage me, besides a sort of egotism, which inclines men to think what they wish to be real. I submit myself to the enquiries of any of my countrymen in England, but I should wish the matter may be secret ’till it is effected. I am with very great respect and regard, my dear sir, Your most obedient, and most humble servant,
Nath. Rogers.