them, and for the reason she gives, that they will fetch but little,
when that little is spent, they would be of no farther use to her; but
perhaps the expectation of possessing them at her death may make that
person tender and careful of her, and helpful to her to the amount of
ten times their value. If so, they are put to the best use they possibly
can be.
"I hope you visit sister as often as your affairs will permit, and
afford her what assistance and comfort you can in her present situation.
_Old age_, _infirmities_, and _poverty_ joined, are afflictions enough.
The _neglect_ and _slights_ of friends and near relations should never
be added; people in her circumstances are apt to suspect this sometimes
without cause, _appearances_ should therefore be attended to in our
conduct towards them as well as _relatives_. I write by this post to
cousin William, to continue his care which I doubt not he will do.
"We expect to sail in about a week, so that I can hardly hear from you
again on this side the water; but let me have a line from you now and
then while I am in London; I expect to stay there at least a
twelvemonth. Direct your letters to be left for me at the Pennsylvania
Coffee-house, in Birchin Lane, London.
"B. FRANKLIN.
"P.S., April 25.--We are still here, and perhaps may be here a week
longer. Once more adieu, my dear sister."
* * * * *
_To the same._
Woodbridge, East New-Jersey, May 21, 1757.
"DEAR SISTER,
"I received your kind letter of the 9th instant, in which you acquainted
me with some of your late troubles. These are troublesome times to us
all; but perhaps you have heard more than you should. I am glad to hear
that Peter is at a place where he has full employ. A trade is a valuable
thing; but unless a habit of industry be acquired with it, it turns out
of little use; if he gets THAT in his new place, it will be a happy
exchange, and the occasion not an unfortunate one.
"It is very agreeable to me to hear so good an account of your other
children: in such a number, to have no bad ones is a great happiness.
"The horse sold very low indeed. If I wanted one to-morrow, knowing his
goodness, old as he is, I should freely give more than twice the money
for him; but you did the best you could, and I will take of Benny no
more than he produced.
"I don't doubt but Benny will do very well when he gets to work: but I
fear his things from England may be so long a coming as to occasion the
loss of the rent. Would it not be better for you to move into the
house? Perhaps not, if he is near being married. I know nothing of that
affair but what you write me, except that I think Miss Betsey a very
agreeable, sweet-tempered, good girl, who has had a housewifery
education, and will make, to a good husband, a very good wife. Your
sister and I have a great esteem for her, and if she will be kind enough
to accept of our nephew, we think it will be his own fault if he is not
as happy as the married state can make him. The family is a respectable
one, but whether there be any fortune I know not; and as you do not
inquire about this particular, I suppose you think with me, that where
everything else desirable is to be met with, that is not very material.
If she does not bring a fortune she will have to make one. Industry,
frugality, and prudent economy in a wife, are to a tradesman, in their
effects, a fortune; and a fortune sufficient for Benjamin, if his
expectations are reasonable. We can only add, that if the young lady and
her friends are willing, we give our consent heartily and our blessing.
My love to brother and the children concludes with me.
B. FRANKLIN."
* * * * *
_To the same_.
"New-York, May 30, 1757
"DEAR SISTER,
"I have before me yours of the 9th and 16th instant. I am glad you have
resolved to visit sister Dowse oftener; it will be a great comfort to
her to find she is not neglected by you, and your example may, perhaps,
be followed by some other of her relations.
"As Neddy is yet a young man, I hope he may get over the disorder he
complains of, and in time wear it out. My love to him and his wife and
the rest of your children. It gives me pleasure to hear that Eben is
likely to get into business at his trade. If he will be industrious and
frugal, 'tis ten to one but he gets rich, for he seems to have spirit
and activity.
"I am glad that Peter is acquainted with the crown soap business, so as
to make what is good of the kind. I hope he will always take care to
make it faithfully, never slight manufacture, or attempt to deceive by
appearances. Then he may boldly put his name and mark, and in a little
time it will acquire as good a character as that made by his late uncle,
or any other person whatever. I believe his aunt at Philadelphia can
help him to sell a good deal of it; and I doubt not of her doing
everything in her power to promote his interest in that way. Let a box
be sent to her (but not unless it be right good), and she will
immediately return the ready money for it. It was beginning once to be
in vogue in Philadelphia, but brother John sent me one box, an ordinary
sort, which checked its progress. I would not have him put the Franklin
arms on it; but the soapboiler's arms he has a right to use, if he
thinks fit. The other would look too much like an attempt to
counterfeit. In his advertisements he may value himself on serving his
time with the original maker, but put his own mark or device on the
papers, or anything he may be advised as proper; only on the soap, as it
is called by the name of crown soap, it seems necessary to use a stamp
of that sort, and perhaps no soapboiler in the king's dominions has a
better right to the crown than himself.
"Nobody has wrote a syllable to me concerning his making use of the
hammer, or made the least complaint of him or you. I am sorry, however,
he took it without leave. It was irregular, and if you had not approved
of his doing it I should have thought it indiscreet. _Leave_, they say,
is _light_, and it seems to me a piece of respect that was due to his
aunt to ask it, and I can scarce think she would have refused him the
favour.
"I am glad to hear Jamey is so good and diligent a workman; if he ever
sets up at the goldsmith's business, he must remember that there is one
accomplishment without which he cannot possibly thrive in that trade
(i. e., _to be perfectly honest_). It is a business that, though ever so
uprightly managed, is always liable to suspicion; and if a man is once
detected in the smallest fraud it soon becomes public, and every one is
put upon their guard against him; no one will venture to try his hands,
or trust him to make up their plate; so at once he is ruined. I hope my
nephew will therefore establish a character as an _honest_ and faithful
as well as _skilful_ workman, and then he need not fear employment.
"And now, as to what you propose for Benny, I believe he may be, as you
say, well enough qualified for it; and when he appears to be settled, if
a vacancy should happen, it is very probable he may be thought of to
supply it; but it is a rule with me not to remove any officer that
behaves well, keeps regular accounts, and pays duly; and I think the
rule is founded on reason and justice. I have not shown any backwardness
to assist Benny, where it could be done without injuring another. But if
my friends require of me to gratify not only their inclinations, but
their resentments, they expect too much of me. Above all things, I
dislike family quarrels; and when they happen among my relations,
nothing gives me more pain. If I were to set myself up as a judge of
those subsisting between you and brother's widow and children, how
unqualified must I be, at this distance, to determine rightly,
especially having heard but one side. They always treated me with
friendly and affectionate regard; you have done the same. What can I say
between you but that I wish you were reconciled, and that I will love
that side best that is most ready to forgive and oblige the other. You
will be angry with me here for putting you and them too much upon a
footing, but I shall nevertheless be
"B. FRANKLIN."
* * * * *
"_Miss Stevenson, Wanstead._
"Craven-street, May 16, 1760.
"I send my good girl the books I mentioned to her last night. I beg her
to accept of them as a small mark of my esteem and friendship. They are
written in the familiar, easy manner for which the French are so
remarkable; and afford a good deal of philosophic and practical
knowledge, unembarassed with the dry mathematics used by more exact
reasoners, but which is apt to discourage young beginners.
"I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand, and enter in a
little book short hints of what you find that is curious or that may be
useful; for this will be the best method of imprinting such particulars
in your memory, where they will be ready either for practice on some
future occasion if they are matters of utility, or at least to adorn and
improve your conversation if they are rather points of curiosity. And as
many of the terms of science are such as you cannot have met with in
your common reading, and may, therefore, be unacquainted with, I think
it would be well for you to have a good dictionary at hand, to consult
immediately when you meet with a word you do not comprehend the precise
meaning of. This may at first seem troublesome and interrupting; but it
is a trouble that will daily diminish, as you will daily find less and
less occasion for your dictionary, as you become more acquainted with
the terms; and in the mean time you will read with more satisfaction,
because with more understanding. When any point occurs in which you
would be glad to have farther information than your book affords you, I
beg you would not in the least apprehend that I should think it a
trouble to receive and answer your questions. It will be a pleasure, and
no trouble. For though I may not be able, out of my own little stock of
knowledge, to afford you what you require, I can easily direct you to
the books where it may most readily be found.
"Adieu, and believe me ever, my dear friend,
"B. FRANKLIN."
* * * * *
"_Lord Kames._
"Portsmouth, August 17, 1761.
"MY DEAR LORD,
"I am now waiting here only for a wind to waft me to America, but cannot
leave this happy island and my friends in it without extreme regret,
though I am going to a country and a people that I love. I am going from
the Old World to the New, and I fancy I feel like those who are leaving
this world for the next; grief at the parting; fear of the passage; hope
of the future: these different passions all affect their minds at once,
and these have _tendered_ me down exceedingly. It is usual for the dying
to beg forgiveness of their surviving friends if they have ever offended
them. Can you, my lord, forgive my long silence, and my not
acknowledging till now the favour you did me in sending me your
excellent book? Can you make some allowance for a fault in others which
you have never experienced in yourself; for the bad habit of postponing
from day to day what one every day resolves to do to-morrow? A habit
that grows upon us with years, and whose only excuse is we know not how
to mend it. If you are disposed to favour me, you will also consider how
much one's mind is taken up and distracted by the many little affairs
one has to settle, before the undertaking such a voyage, after so long a
residence in a country; and how little, in such a situation, one's mind
is fitted for serious and attentive reading, which, with regard to the
_Elements of Criticism_, I intended before I should write. I can now
only confess and endeavour to amend. In packing up my books, I have
reserved yours to read on the passage. I hope I shall therefore be able
to write to you upon it soon after my arrival. At present I can only
return my thanks, and say that the parts I have read gave me both
pleasure and instruction; that I am convinced of your position, new as
it was to me, that a good taste in the arts contributes to the
improvement of morals; and that I have had the satisfaction of hearing
the work universally commended by those who have read it.
"And now, my dear sir, accept my sincere thanks for the kindness you
have shown me, and my best wishes of happiness to you and yours.
Wherever I am, I shall esteem the friendship you honour me with as one
of the felicities of my life; I shall endeavour to cultivate it by a
more punctual correspondence; and I hope frequently to hear of your
welfare and prosperity.
B. FRANKLIN."
* * * * *
_To the same._[13]
[13] Lord Kames had written to Dr. Franklin as early as 1765, when
the first advices reached England of the disorders occasioned by
the attempts to carry the stamp-act into execution; and he had
written a second letter to him on the same subject in the beginning
of 1767. This is a copy of Dr. Franklin's answer to these letters.
London, April 11, 1767.
"MY DEAR LORD,
I received your obliging favour of January the 19th. You have kindly
relieved me from the pain I had long been under. You are goodness
itself. I ought to have answered yours of December 25, 1765. I never
received a letter that contained sentiments more suitable to my own. It
found me under much agitation of mind on the very important subject it
treated. It fortified me greatly in the judgment I was inclined to form
(though contrary to the general vogue) on the then delicate and critical
situation of affairs between Great Britain and the colonies, and on that
weighty point, their _union_. You guessed aright in supposing that I
would not be a _mute in that play_. I was extremely busy, attending
members of both houses, informing, explaining, consulting, disputing, in
a continual hurry from morning to night, till the affair was happily
ended. During the course of its being called before the House of Commons
I spoke my mind pretty freely. Enclosed I send you the imperfect account
that was taken of that examination; you will there see how entirely we
agree, except in a point of fact, of which you could not but be
misinformed; the papers at that time being full of mistaken assertions,
that the colonies had been the cause of the war, and had ungratefully
refused to bear any part of the expense of it. I send it you now,
because I apprehend some late accidents are likely to revive the contest
between the two countries. I fear it will be a mischievous one. It
becomes a matter of great importance, that clear ideas should be formed
on solid principles, both in Britain and America, of the true political
relation between them, and the mutual duties belonging to that relation.
Till this is done they will be often jarring. I know none whose
knowledge, sagacity, and impartiality qualify him so thoroughly for such
a service as yours do you. I wish, therefore, you would consider it. You
may thereby be the happy instrument of great good to the nation, and of
preventing much mischief and bloodshed. I am fully persuaded with you,
that a _consolidating union_, by a fair and equal representation of all
the parts of this empire in Parliament, is the only firm basis on which
its political grandeur and prosperity can be founded. Ireland once
wished it, but now rejects it. The time has been when the colonies might
have been pleased with it, they are now _indifferent_ about it, and if
it is much longer delayed, they too will _refuse_ it. But the pride of
this people cannot bear the thought of it, and therefore it will be
delayed. Every man in England seems to consider himself as a piece of a
sovereign over America; seems to jostle himself into the throne with the
king, and talks of _our subjects in the colonies_. The Parliament cannot
well and wisely make laws suited to the colonies, without being properly
and truly informed of their circumstances, abilities, temper, &c. This
it cannot be without representatives from thence; and yet it is fond of
this power, and averse to the only means of acquiring the necessary
knowledge for exercising it, which is desiring to be _omnipotent_
without being _omniscient_.
"I have mentioned that the contest is likely to be revived. It is on
this occasion: in the same session with the stamp-act, an act was passed
to regulate the quartering of soldiers in America: when the bill was
first brought in, it contained a clause empowering the officers to
quarter their soldiers in private houses; this we warmly opposed, and
got it omitted. The bill passed, however, with a clause that empty
houses, barns, &c., should be hired for them; and that the respective
provinces where they were should pay the expense, and furnish firing,
bedding, drink, and some other articles to the soldiers, _gratis_. There
is no way for any province to do this but by the Assembly's making a law
to raise the money. Pennsylvania Assembly has made such a law; New-York
Assembly has refused to do it; and now all the talk here is, of sending
a force to compel them.
"The reasons given by the Assembly to the governor for the refusal are,
that they understand the act to mean the furnishing such things to
soldiers only while on their march through the country, and not to great
bodies of soldiers, to be fixed, as at present, in the province; the
burden in the latter case being greater than the inhabitants can bear;
that it would put it in the power of the captain-general to oppress the
province at pleasure, &c. But there is supposed to be another reason at
bottom, which they intimate, though they do not plainly express it, to
wit, that it is of the nature of an _internal tax_ laid on them by
Parliament, which has no right so to do. Their refusal is here called
_rebellion_, and punishment is thought of.
"Now, waving that point of right, and supposing the legislatures in
America subordinate to the legislatures of Great Britain, one might
conceive, I think, a power in the superior legislature to forbid the
inferior legislatures making particular laws; but to enjoin it to make a
particular law, contrary to its own judgment, seems improper; an
assembly or parliament not being an _executive_ officer of government,
whose duty it is, in law-making, to obey orders, but a _deliberative_
body, who are to consider what comes before them, its propriety,
practicability, or possibility, and to determine accordingly; the very
nature of a parliament seems to be destroyed by supposing it may be
bound and compelled by a law of a superior parliament to make a law
contrary to its own judgment.
"Indeed, the act of Parliament in question has not, as in other acts,
when a duty is enjoined, directed a penalty on neglect or refusal, and a
mode of recovering that penalty. It seems, therefore, to the people in
America as a requisition, which they are at liberty to comply with or
not, as it may suit or not suit the different circumstances of the
different provinces. Pennsylvania has, therefore, voluntarily complied.
New-York, as I said before, has refused. The ministry that made the act,
and all their adherents, call for vengeance. The present ministry are
perplexed, and the measures they will finally take on the occasion are
yet unknown. But sure I am that if _force_ is used great mischief will
ensue, the affections of the people of America to this country will be
alienated, your commerce will be diminished, and a total separation of
interests be the final consequence.
"It is a common but mistaken notion here, that the colonies were planted
at the expense of Parliament, and that, therefore, the Parliament has a
right to tax them, &c. The truth is, they were planted at the expense of
private adventurers, who went over there to settle, with leave of the
king, given by charter. On receiving this leave and those charters, the
adventurers voluntarily engaged to remain the king's subjects, though in
a foreign country; a country which had not been conquered by either king
or parliament, but was possessed by a free people.
"When our planters arrived, they purchased the lands of the natives,
without putting king or parliament to any expense. Parliament had no
hand in their settlement, was never so much as consulted about their
constitution, and took no kind of notice of them till many years after
they were established. I except only the two modern colonies, or,
rather, attempts to make colonies (for they succeed but poorly, and, as
yet, hardly deserve the name of colonies), I mean Georgia and Nova
Scotia, which have hitherto been little better than parliamentary jobs.
Thus all the colonies acknowledge the king as their sovereign; his
governors there represent his person: laws are made by their assemblies
or little parliaments, with the governor's assent, subject still to the
king's pleasure to affirm or annul them. Suits arising in the colonies,
and between colony and colony, are determined by the king in council. In
this view they seem so many separate little states, subject to the same
prince. The sovereignty of the king is therefore easily understood. But
nothing is more common here than to talk of the _sovereignty_ of
PARLIAMENT, and the sovereignty of this nation over the colonies; a kind
of sovereignty, the idea of which is not so clear, nor does it clearly
appear on what foundation it is established. On the other hand, it seems
necessary, for the common good of the empire, that a power be lodged
somewhere to regulate its general commerce; this can be placed nowhere
so properly as in the Parliament of Great Britain; and, therefore,
though that power has in some instances been executed with great
partiality to Britain and prejudice to the colonies, they have
nevertheless always submitted to it. Custom-houses are established in
all of them, by virtue of laws made here, and the duties instantly paid,
except by a few smugglers, such as are here and in all countries; but
internal taxes laid on them by Parliament are still, and ever will be,
objected to for the reason that you will see in the mentioned
examination.
"Upon the whole, I have lived so great a part of my life in Britain, and
have formed so many friendships in it, that I love it, and sincerely
wish it prosperity; and, therefore, wish to see that union on which
alone I think it can be secured and established. As to America, the
advantages of such a union to her are not so apparent. She may suffer at
present under the arbitrary power of this country; she may suffer for a
while in a separation from it; but these are temporary evils which she
will outgrow. Scotland and Ireland are differently circumstanced.
Confined by the sea, they can scarcely increase in numbers, wealth, and
strength, so as to overbalance England. But America, an immense
territory, favoured by nature with all advantages of climate, soils,
great navigable rivers, lakes, &c., must become a great country,
populous and mighty; and will, in a less time than is generally
conceived, be able to shake off any shackles that may be imposed upon
her, and, perhaps, place them on the imposers. In the mean time, every
act of oppression will sour their tempers, lessen greatly, if not
annihilate, the profits of your commerce with them, and hasten their
final revolt; for the seeds of liberty are universally found there, and
nothing can eradicate them. And yet there remains among that people so
much respect, veneration, and affection for Britain, that, if cultivated
prudently, with a kind usage and tenderness for their privileges, they
might be easily governed still for ages, without force or any
considerable expense. But I do not see here a sufficient quantity of the
wisdom that is necessary to produce such a conduct, and I lament the
want of it.
"I borrowed at Millar's the new edition of your _Principles of Equity_,
and have read with great pleasure the preliminary discourse on the
principles of morality. I have never before met with anything so
satisfactory on the subject. While reading it, I made a few remarks as I
went along. They are not of much importance, but I send you the paper.
"I know the lady you mention (Mrs. Montague), having, when in England
before, met her once or twice at Lord Bath's. I remember I then
entertained the same opinion of her that you express. On the strength of
your recommendation, I purpose soon to wait on her.
"This is unexpectedly grown a long letter. The visit to Scotland and the
_Art of Virtue_ we will talk of hereafter. It is now time to say that I
am, with increasing esteem and affection,
"B. FRANKLIN."[14]
[14] This letter was intercepted by the British ministry; Dr. F.
had preserved a copy of it, which was afterward transmitted to Lord
Kames; but the wisdom that composed and conveyed it was thrown away
upon the men at that time in power.
* * * * *
"_Lord Kames._
"London, February 21, 1769.
"MY DEAR FRIEND,