Mr. F. has since thought that, possibly, the mutual repulsion of
the inner opposite sides of the electrized can may prevent the
accumulating an electric atmosphere upon them, and occasion it
to stand chiefly on the outside. But recommends it to the
further examination of the curious.
The explanation in this note is the correct one, and from the fact
that in the case of a completely closed hollow conductor the charge is
not only _chiefly_ but _wholly_ on the outside, the law of inverse
squares above referred to follows as a mathematical consequence.
On writing to M. Dalibard, of Paris, on June 29, 1755, Franklin
complained that, though he always (except once) assigned to
lightning-rods the alternative duty of either _preventing_ a stroke or
of _conducting_ the lightning with safety to the ground, yet in Europe
attention was paid only to the _prevention_ of the stroke, which was
only a _part_ of the duty assigned to the conductors. This is followed
by the description of the effect of a stroke upon a church-steeple at
Newbury, in New England. The spire was split all to pieces, so that
nothing remained above the bell. The lightning then passed down a wire
to the clock, then down the pendulum, without injury to the building.
"From the end of the pendulum, down quite to the ground, the building
was exceedingly rent and damaged, and some stones in the
foundation-wall torn out and thrown to the distance of twenty or
thirty feet." The pendulum-rod was uninjured, but the fine wire
leading from the bell to the clock was vaporized except for about two
inches at each end.
Mr. James Alexander, of New York, having proposed to Franklin that the
velocity of the electric discharge might be measured by discharging a
jar through a long circuit of river-water, Franklin, in his reply,
explained that such an experiment, if successful, would not determine
the actual velocity of electricity in the conductor. He compared the
electricity in conductors to an incompressible fluid, so that when a
little additional fluid is injected at one end of a conductor, an
equal amount must be extruded at the other end--his view apparently
being identical with that of Maxwell, who held that all electric
displacements must take place _in closed circuits_.
"Suppose a tube of any length open at both ends.... If the tube be
filled with water, and I inject an additional inch of water at one
end, I force out an equal quantity at the other in the very same
instant.
"And the water forced out at one end of the tube is not the very same
water that was forced in at the other end at the same time; it was
only one motion at the same time.
"The long wire, made use of in the experiment to discover the velocity
of the electric fluid, is itself filled with what we call its natural
quantity of that fluid, before the hook of the Leyden bottle is
applied at one end of it.
"The outside of the bottle being at the time of such application in
contact with the other end of the wire, the whole quantity of electric
fluid contained in the wire is, probably, put in motion at once.
"For at the instant the hook, connected with the inside of the bottle,
_gives out_, the coating or outside of the bottle _draws in_, a
portion of that fluid....
"So that this experiment only shows the extreme facility with which
the electric fluid moves in metal; it can never determine the
velocity.
"And, therefore, the proposed experiment (though well imagined and
very ingenious) of sending the spark round through a vast length of
space, by the waters of Susquehannah, or Potowmack, and Ohio, would
not afford the satisfaction desired, though we could be sure that the
motion of the electric fluid would be in that tract, and not
underground in the wet earth by the shortest way."
In his investigations of the source of electricity in thunder-clouds,
Franklin tried an experiment which has been frequently repeated with
various modifications. Having insulated a large brass plate which had
been previously heated, he sprinkled water upon it, in order, if
possible, to obtain electricity by the evaporation of the water, but
no trace of electrification could be detected.
During his visit to England, Franklin wrote many letters to Mr.
Kinnersley and others on philosophical questions, but they consisted
mainly of accounts of the work done by other experimenters in England,
his public business occupying too much of his attention to allow him
to conduct investigations for himself. In one of his letters, speaking
of Lord Charles Cavendish, he says:--
It were to be wished that this noble philosopher would
communicate more of his experiments to the world, as he makes
many, and with great accuracy.
When the controversy between the relative merits of points and knobs
for the terminals of lightning-conductors arose, Franklin wrote to Mr.
Kinnersley:--
Here are some electricians that recommend knobs instead of
points on the upper end of the rods, from a supposition that the
points invite the stroke. It is true that points draw
electricity at greater distances in the gradual silent way; but
knobs will draw at the greatest distance a stroke. There is an
experiment which will settle this. Take a crooked wire of the
thickness of a quill, and of such a length as that, one end of
it being applied to the lower part of a charged bottle, the
upper may be brought near the ball on the top of the wire that
is in the bottle. Let one end of this wire be furnished with a
knob, and the other may be gradually tapered to a fine point.
When the point is presented to discharge the bottle, it must be
brought much nearer before it will receive the stroke than the
knob requires to be. Points, besides, tend to repel the
fragments of an electrical cloud; knobs draw them nearer. An
experiment, which I believe I have shown you, of cotton fleece
hanging from an electrized body, shows this clearly when a point
or a knob is presented under it.
The following quotation from Franklin's paper on the method of
securing buildings and persons from the effects of lightning is worthy
of attention, for of late years a good deal of money has been wasted
in providing insulators for lightning-rods. A few years ago the vicar
and churchwardens of a Lincolnshire parish were strongly urged to go
to the expense of insulating the conductor throughout the whole height
of the very lofty tower and spire of their parish church. Happily they
were wise enough to send the lightning-rod man about his business. But
this is not the only case which has come under the writer's notice,
showing that there is still a widespread impression that
lightning-conductors should be carefully insulated. Franklin says:--
"The rod may be fastened to the wall, chimney, etc., with staples of
iron. The lightning will not leave the rod (a good conductor) to pass
into the wall (a bad conductor) through these staples. It would
rather, if any were in the wall, pass out of it into the rod, to get
more readily by that conductor into the earth."[2]
[Footnote 2: See p. 141.]
The conditions to be secured in a lightning-conductor are, firstly, a
sharp point projecting above the highest part of the building, and
gilded to prevent corrosion; secondly, metallic continuity from the
point to the lower end of the conductor; and, thirdly, a good
earth-contact. The last can frequently be secured by soldering the
conductor to iron water-pipes underground. Where these are not
available, a copper plate, two or three feet square, imbedded in clay
or other damp earth, will serve the purpose. The method of securing a
building which is erected on granite or other foundation affording no
good earth-connection, will be referred to in a subsequent
biographical sketch.
The controversy of points _versus_ knobs was again revived in London
when Franklin was in Paris, and the War of Independence had begun.
Franklin was consulted on the subject, the question having arisen in
connection with the conductor at the palace. His reply was
characteristic.
"As to my writing anything on the subject, which you seem to desire, I
think it not necessary, especially as I have nothing to add to what I
have already said upon it in a paper read to the committee who ordered
the conductors at Purfleet, which paper is printed in the last French
edition of my writings.
"I have never entered into any controversy in defence of my
philosophical opinions. I leave them to take their chance in the
world. If they are _right_, truth and experience will support them; if
_wrong_, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to
sour one's temper and disturb one's quiet. I have no private interest
in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor
proposed to make, the least profit by any of them. The king's changing
his _pointed_ conductors for _blunt_ ones is, therefore, a matter of
small importance to me. If I had a wish about it, it would be that he
had rejected them altogether as ineffectual. For it is only since he
thought himself and family safe from the thunder of Heaven, that he
dared to use his own thunder in destroying his innocent subjects."
The paper referred to was read before "the committee appointed to
consider the erecting conductors to secure the magazines at Purfleet,"
on August 27, 1772. It described a variety of experiments clearly
demonstrating the effect of points in discharging a conductor. This
was a committee of the Royal Society, to whom the question had been
referred on account of Dr. Wilson's recommendation of a blunt
conductor. The committee decided in favour of Franklin's view, and
when, in 1777, the question was again raised and again referred to a
committee of the Royal Society, the decision of the former committee
was confirmed, "conceiving that the experiments and reasons made and
alleged to the contrary by Mr. Wilson are inconclusive."
Though Franklin's scientific reputation rests mainly on his electrical
researches, he did not leave other branches of science untouched.
Besides his work on atmospheric electricity, he devoted a great deal
of thought to meteorology, especially to the vortical motion of
waterspouts. The Gulf-stream received a share of his attention. His
improvements in fireplaces have already been noticed; the cure of
smoky chimneys was the subject of a long paper addressed to Dr.
Ingenhousz, and of some other letters. One of his experiments on the
absorption of radiant energy has been deservedly remembered.
"My experiment was this: I took a number of little square pieces of
broad-cloth from a tailor's pattern-card, of various colours. There
were black, deep blue, lighter blue, green, purple, red, yellow,
white, and other colours or shades of colours. I laid them all out
upon the snow in a bright, sun-shiny morning. In a few hours (I cannot
now be exact as to the time) the black, being warmed most by the sun,
was sunk so low as to be below the stroke of the sun's rays; the dark
blue almost as low, the lighter blue not quite so much as the dark,
the other colours less as they were lighter; and the quite white
remained on the surface of the snow, not having entered it at all.
"What signifies philosophy that does not apply to some use? May we not
learn from hence that black clothes are not so fit to wear in a hot,
sunny climate or season, as white ones?"
Franklin knew much about electricity, but his knowledge of human
nature was deeper still. This appears in all his transactions. His
political economy was, perhaps, not always sound, but his judgment of
men was seldom at fault.
"Finally, there seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire
wealth. The first is by _war_, as the Romans did, in plundering their
conquered neighbour: this is _robbery_. The second by _commerce_,
which is generally _cheating_. The third by _agriculture_, the only
_honest way_, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown
into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle wrought by the hand of
God in his favour, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous
industry."
When Franklin reached London in 1757 he took up his abode with Mrs.
Margaret Stevenson, in Craven Street, Strand. For Mrs. Stevenson and
her daughter Mary, then a young lady of eighteen, he acquired a
sincere affection, which continued throughout their lives. Miss
Stevenson spent much of her time with an aunt in the country, and some
of Franklin's letters to her respecting the conduct of her "higher
education" are among the most interesting of his writings. Miss
Stevenson treated him as a father, and consulted him on every question
of importance in her life. When she was a widow and Franklin eighty
years of age, he urged upon her to come to Philadelphia, for the sake
of the better prospects which the new country offered her boys. In
coming to England, Franklin brought with him his son William, who
entered the Middle Temple, but he left behind his only daughter,
Sarah, in charge of her mother. To his wife and daughter he
frequently sent presents from London, and his letters to Mrs. Franklin
give a pretty full account of all his doings while in England. During
his visit he received the honorary degrees of D.C.L. from the
University of Oxford, and LL.D. from that of Edinburgh. At Cambridge
he was sumptuously entertained. In August, 1762, he started again for
America, and reached Philadelphia on November 1, after an absence of
five years. His son William had shortly before been appointed Governor
of New Jersey. From this time William Franklin became very much the
servant of the proprietaries and of the English Government, but no
offer of patronage produced any effect on the father.
Franklin's stay in America was of short duration, but while there he
was mainly instrumental in quelling an insurrection in Pennsylvania.
He made a tour of inspection through the northern colonies in the
summer of 1763, to regulate the post-offices. The disorder just
referred to in the province caused the governor, as well as the
Assembly, to determine on the formation of a militia. A committee, of
which Franklin was a member, drew up the necessary bill. The governor
claimed the sole power of appointing officers, and required that
trials should be by court-martial, some offences being punishable with
death. The Assembly refused to agree to these considerations. The ill
feeling was increased by the governor insisting on taxing all
proprietary lands at the same rate as uncultivated land belonging to
other persons, whether the proprietary lands were cultivated or not.
The Assembly, before adjourning, expressed an opinion that peace and
happiness would not be secured until the government was lodged
directly in the Crown. When the Assembly again met, petitions to the
king came in from more than three thousand inhabitants. In the mean
while the British Ministry had proposed the Stamp Act, which was
similar in principle to the English Stamp Act, which requires that all
agreements, receipts, bills of exchange, marriage and birth
certificates, and all other legal documents should be provided with an
inland revenue stamp of a particular value, in order that they might
be valid. As soon as the Assembly was convened, it determined to send
Franklin to England, to take charge of a petition for a change of
government. The merchants subscribed L1100 towards his expenses in a
few hours, and in twelve days he was on his journey, being accompanied
to the ship, a distance of sixteen miles, by a cavalcade of three
hundred of his friends, and in thirty days he reached London. Arrived
in London, he at once took up his abode in his old lodgings with Mrs.
Stevenson. He was a master of satire, equalled only by Swift, and
during the quarrels which preceded the War of Independence, as well as
during the war, he made good use of his powers in this respect.
Articles appeared in some of the English papers tending to raise an
alarm respecting the competition of the colonies with English
manufacturers. Franklin's contribution to the discussion was a
caricature of the English press writers.
"It is objected by superficial readers, who yet pretend to some
knowledge of those countries, that such establishments [manufactories
for woollen goods, etc.] are not only improbable, but impossible, for
that their sheep have but little wool, not in the whole sufficient for
a pair of stockings a year to each inhabitant; that, from the
universal dearness of labour among them, the working of iron and other
materials, except in a few coarse instances, is impracticable to any
advantage.
"Dear sir, do not let us suffer ourselves to be amused with such
groundless objections. The very tails of the American sheep are so
laden with wool that each has a little car or waggon on four little
wheels to support and keep it from trailing on the ground. Would they
caulk their ships, would they even litter their horses with wool, if
it were not both plenty and cheap? And what signifies the dearness of
labour, when an English shilling passes for five and twenty? Their
engaging three hundred silk throwsters here in one week for New York
was treated as a fable, because, forsooth, they have 'no silk there to
throw!' Those who make this objection perhaps do not know that, at the
same time, the agents for the King of Spain were at Quebec, to
contract for one thousand pieces of cannon to be made there for the
fortification of Mexico, and at New York engaging the usual supply of
woollen floor-carpets for their West India houses. Other agents from
the Emperor of China were at Boston, treating about an exchange of raw
silk for wool, to be carried in Chinese junks through the Straits of
Magellan.
"And yet all this is as certainly true as the account said to be from
Quebec in all the papers of last week, that the inhabitants of Canada
are making preparations for a cod and whale fishery this summer in the
upper Lakes. Ignorant people may object that the upper Lakes are
fresh, and that cod and whales are salt-water fish; but let them know,
sir, that cod, like other fish when attacked by their enemies, fly
into any water where they can be safest; that whales, when they have a
mind to eat cod, pursue them wherever they fly; and that the grand
leap of the whale in the chase up the Falls of Niagara is esteemed, by
all who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature."
One of Franklin's chief objects in coming to England was to prevent
the passing of Mr. Grenville's bill, previously referred to as the
Stamp Act. The colonists urged that they had always been liberal in
their votes, whenever money was required by the Crown, and that
taxation and representation must, in accordance with the British
constitution, go hand-in-hand, so that the English Parliament had no
right to raise taxes in America, so long as the colonists were
unrepresented in Parliament. "Had Mr. Grenville, instead of that act,
applied to the king in Council for such requisitional letters [_i.e._
requests to the Assemblies for voluntary grants], to be circulated by
the Secretary of State, I am sure he would have obtained more money
from the colonies by their voluntary grants than he himself expected
from the sale of stamps. But he chose compulsion rather than
persuasion, and would not receive from their good will what he thought
he could obtain without it." The Stamp Act was passed, stamps were
printed, distributors were appointed, but the colonists would have
nothing to do with the stamps. The distributors were compelled to
resign their commissions, and the captains of vessels were forbidden
to land the stamped paper. The cost of printing and distributing
amounted to L12,000; the whole return was about L1500, from Canada and
the West Indies.
The passing of the Stamp Act was soon followed by a change of
Ministry, when the question again came before Parliament. Franklin
submitted to a long examination before a Committee of the whole House.
The feeling prevalent in America respecting the Stamp Act may be
inferred from some of his answers.
"31. _Q._ Do you think the people of America would submit to pay the
stamp duty if it was moderated?
"_A._ No, never, unless compelled by force of arms.
"36. _Q._ What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before
the year 1763?[3]
[Footnote 3: The date of the Sugar Act.]
"_A._ The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the
government of the Crown, and paid, in their courts, obedience to the
Acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old
provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or
armies to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this country
at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper; they were led by
a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection, for Great
Britain--for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness
for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of
Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an
_Old-Englandman_ was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave
a kind of rank among us.
"37. _Q._ And what is their temper now?
"_A._ Oh, very much altered.
"50. _Q._ Was it an opinion in America before 1763 that the Parliament
had no right to lay taxes and duties there?
"_A._ I never heard any objection to the right of laying duties to
regulate commerce; but a right to lay internal taxes was never
supposed to be in Parliament, as we are not represented there.
"59. _Q._ You say the colonies have always submitted to external
taxes, and object to the right of Parliament only in laying internal
taxes; now, can you show that there is any kind of difference between
the two taxes to the colony on which they may be laid?
"_A._ I think the difference is very great. An _external_ tax is a
duty laid on commodities imported; that duty is added to the first
cost and other charges on the commodity, and, when it is offered to
sale, makes a part of the price. If the people do not like it at that
price, they refuse it; they are not obliged to pay it. But an
_internal_ tax is forced upon the people without their consent, if not
laid by their own representatives. The Stamp Act says we shall have no
commerce, make no exchange of property with each other, neither
purchase, nor grant, nor recover debts; we shall neither marry nor
make our wills, unless we pay such and such sums; and thus it is
intended to extort our money from us, or ruin us by the consequences
of refusing to pay it.
"61. _Q._ Don't you think cloth from England absolutely necessary to
them?
"_A._ No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and good
management they may very well supply themselves with all they want.
"62. _Q._ Will it not take a long time to establish that manufacture
among them? and must they not in the mean while suffer greatly?
"_A._ I think not. They have made a surprising progress already. And I
am of opinion that, before their old clothes are worn out, they will
have new ones of their own making.
"84. _Q._ If the Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the
consequence?
"_A._ A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America
bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that
respect and affection.
"85. _Q._ How can the commerce be affected?
"_A._ You will find that, if the Act is not repealed, they will take a
very little of your manufactures in a short time.
"86. _Q._ Is it in their power to do without them?
"_A._ I think they may very well do without them.
"87. _Q._ Is it their interest not to take them?
"_A._ The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere
conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, etc., with a
little industry they can make at home; the second they can do without
till they are able to provide them among themselves; and the last,
which are much the greatest part, they will strike off immediately.
They are mere articles of fashion, purchased and consumed because the
fashion in a respected country; but will now be detested and rejected.
The people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use of
all goods fashionable in mournings, and many thousand pounds' worth
are sent back as unsaleable.
"173. _Q._ What used to be the pride of the Americans?
"_A._ To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain.
"174. _Q._ What is now their pride?
"_A._ To wear their old clothes over again till they can make new
ones."
The month following Franklin's examination, the repeal of the Stamp
Act received the royal assent. Thereupon Franklin sent his wife and
daughter new dresses, and a number of other little luxuries (or toilet
necessaries).
In 1767 Franklin visited Paris. In the same year his daughter married
Mr. Richard Bache. Though Parliament had repealed the Stamp Act, it
nevertheless insisted on its right to tax the colonies. The Duty Act
was scarcely less objectionable than its predecessor. On Franklin's
return from the Continent, he heard of the retaliatory measures of the
Boston people, who had assembled in town-meetings, formally resolved
to encourage home manufactures, to abandon superfluities, and, after a
certain time, to give up the use of some articles of foreign
manufacture. These _associations_ afterwards became very general in
the colonies, so that in one year the importations by the colonists of
New York fell from L482,000 to L74,000, and in Pennsylvania from
L432,000 to L119,000.
The effect of the Duty Act was to encourage the Dutch and other
nations to smuggle tea and probably other India produce into America.
The exclusion from the American markets of tea sent from England
placed the East India Company in great difficulties; for while they
were unable to meet their bills, they had in stock two million pounds'
worth of tea and other goods. The balance of the revenue collected
under the Duty Act, after paying salaries, etc., amounted to only L85
for the year, and for this a fleet had to be maintained, to guard the
fifteen hundred miles of American coast; while the fall in East India
Stock deprived the revenue of L400,000 per annum, which the East India
Company would otherwise have paid. At length a licence was granted to
the East India Company to carry tea into America, duty free. This, of
course, excluded all other merchants from the American tea-trade. A
quantity of tea sent by the East India Company to Boston was destroyed
by the people. The British Government then blockaded the port. This
soon led to open hostilities. Franklin worked hard to effect a
reconciliation. He drew up a scheme, setting forth the conditions
under which he conceived a reconciliation might be brought about, and
discussed it fully with Mr. Daniel Barclay and Dr. Fothergill. This
scheme was shown to Lord Howe, and afterwards brought before the
Ministry, but was rejected. Other plans were considered, and Franklin
offered to pay for the tea which had been destroyed at Boston. All his
negotiations were, however, fruitless. At last he addressed a memorial
to the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State, complaining of the
blockade of Boston, which had then continued for nine months, and had
"during every week of its continuance done damage to that town, equal
to what was suffered there by the India Company;" and claiming
reparation for such injury beyond the value of the tea which had been
destroyed. The memorial also complained of the exclusion of the
colonists from the Newfoundland fisheries, for which reparation would
one day be required. This memorial was returned to Franklin by Mr.
Walpole, and Franklin shortly afterwards returned to Philadelphia.
During this visit to England he had lost his wife, who died on
December 19, 1774; and his friend Miss Stevenson had married and been
left a widow.
In April, 1768, Franklin was appointed Agent for Georgia, in the
following year for New Jersey, and in 1770 for Massachusetts, so that
he was then the representative in England of four colonies, with an
income of L1200 per annum.
In 1771 he spent three weeks at Twyford, with the Bishop of St. Asaph,
who remained a fast friend of Franklin's until his death. In 1772 he
was nominated by the King of France as Foreign Associate of the
Academy of Sciences.
During his negotiations with the British Government Franklin wrote two
satirical pieces, setting forth the treatment which the American
colonists were receiving. The first was entitled "Rules for Reducing a
Great Empire to a Small One," the rules being precisely those which,
in Franklin's opinion, had been followed by the British Government in
its dealings with America. The other was "An Edict by the King of
Prussia," in which the king claimed the right of taxing the British
nation; of forbidding English manufacture, and compelling Englishmen
to purchase Prussian goods; of transporting prisoners to Britain, and
generally of exercising all such controls over the English people as
had been claimed over America by various Acts of the English
Parliament, on the ground that England was originally colonized by
emigrants from Prussia.
Before Franklin reached America, the War of Independence, though not
formally declared, had fairly begun. He was appointed a member of the
second Continental Congress, and one of a committee of three to confer
with General Washington respecting the support and regulation of the
Continental Army. This latter office necessitated his spending some
time in the camp. On October 3, 1775, he wrote to Priestley:--
Tell our dear good friend, Dr. Price, who sometimes has his
doubts and despondencies about our firmness, that America is
determined and unanimous; a very few Tories and placemen
excepted, who will probably soon export themselves. Britain, at
the expense of three millions, has killed a hundred and fifty
Yankees this campaign, which is L20,000 a head; and at Bunker's
Hill she gained a mile of ground, half of which she lost again
by our taking the post on Ploughed Hill. During the same time
sixty thousand children have been born in America. From these
_data_ his mathematical head will easily calculate the time and
expense necessary to kill us all and conquer our whole
territory.
In 1776 Franklin, then seventy years old, was appointed one of three
Commissioners to visit Canada, in order, if possible, to promote a
union between it and the States. Finding that only one Canadian in
five hundred could read, and that the state of feeling in Canada was
fatal to the success of the Commissioners, they returned, and Franklin
suggested that the next Commission sent to Canada should consist of
schoolmasters. On the 4th of July Franklin took part in the signing of
the Declaration of Independence. When the document was about to be
signed, Mr. Hancock remarked, "We must be unanimous; there must be no
pulling different ways; we must all hang together." Franklin replied,
"Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all
hang separately."
In the autumn of 1776 Franklin was unanimously chosen a Special
Commissioner to the French Court. He took with him his two grandsons,
William Temple Franklin and Benjamin Franklin Bache, and leaving
Marcus Hook on October 28, crossed the Atlantic in a sloop of sixteen
guns. In Paris he met with an enthusiastic reception. M. de Chaumont
placed at his disposal his house at Passy, then about a mile from
Paris, but now within the city. Here he resided for nine years, being
a constant visitor at the French Court, and certainly one of the most
conspicuous figures in Paris. He was obliged to serve in many
capacities, and was very much burdened with work. Not only were there
his duties as Commissioner at the French Court, but he was also made
Admiralty Judge and Financial Agent, so that all the coupons for the
payment of interest on the money borrowed for the prosecution of the
war, as well as all financial negotiations, either with the French
Government or contractors, had to pass through his hands. Perhaps the
most unpleasant part of his work was his continued applications to the
French Court for monetary advances. The French Government, as is well
known, warmly espoused the cause of the Americans, and to the utmost
of its ability assisted them with money, material, and men. Franklin
was worried a good deal by applications from French officers for
introductions to General Washington, that they might obtain employment
in the American Army. At last he framed a model letter of
recommendation, which may be useful to many in this country in the
present day. It was as follows:--