pelled to receive their rents in this money, and
the lords now found for them. Franklin acknow
ledged that herein perhaps the lords were right and
the Assembly wrong; but he added this scathing
paragraph :

" But if he cannot on these considerations quite ex
cuse the Assembly, what will he think of those honour
able proprietaries, who, when paper money was issued
in their colony for the common defense of their vast
estates with those of the people, could nevertheless wish
to be exempted from their share of the unavoidable dis
advantages. Is there upon earth a man besides, with
any conception of what is honest, with any notion of
honor, with the least tincture in his veins of the gentle
man, but would have blushed at the thought, but would
have rejected with disdain such undue preference, if it
had been offered him ? Much less would he have strug
gled for it, moved heaven and earth to obtain it, resolved
to ruin thousands of his tenants by a repeal of the act,
rather than miss of it, and enforce it afterwards by an



72 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

audaciously wicked instruction, forbidding aids to his
king, and exposing the province to destruction, unless
it was complied with. And yet, these are honourable
men ! "

This was, however, altogether a subordinate
issue. The struggle had really been conducted to
determine whether the proprietary estate should be
taxed like other estates, and the decision upheld
such taxation. This was a complete triumph for
the Assembly and their representative. "But let
the proprietaries and their discreet deputies here
after recollect and remember," said Franklin,
"that the same august tribunal, which censured
some of the modes and circumstances of that act,
did at the same time establish and confirm the
grand principle of the act, namely: That the pro
prietary estate ought, with other estates, to be
taxed; and thereby did, in effect, determine and
pronounce that the opposition so long made in
various shapes to that just principle, by the pro
prietaries, was fundamentally wrong and un
just! "

It was a long while before the Assembly found
leisure to attend to that engagement of their agents
which stipulated for an investigation to see whether
the proprietaries had not been unduly and exces
sively assessed. But at length, after having had
the spur of reminder constantly applied to their
laggard memories, they appointed a committee to
inquire and report concerning the valuations made
by the tax-gatherers.



REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 73

This committee reported that

" there has not been any injustice done to the proprie
taries, or attempts made to rate or assess any part of
their estates higher than the estates of the like kind be
longing to the inhabitants are rated and assessed ; but,
on the contrary, . . . their estates are rated, in many
instances, below others."

So the matter ended.

Franklin had been detained a little more than
three years about this business. At its conclusion
he anticipated a speedy return home; but he had
to stay yet two years more to attend to sundry
matters smaller in importance, but which were ad
vanced almost as slowly. Partly such delay was
because the aristocrats of the board of trade and
the privy council had not the habits of business
men, but consulted their own noble convenience
in the transaction of affairs; and partly it was
because procrastination was purposely employed
by his opponents, who harassed him and blocked
his path by every obstacle, direct and indirect,
which they could put in his way. For they seemed
to hope for some turn in affairs, some event, or
some too rapid advance of the popular party in
America, which should arouse the royal resentment
against the colonists and so militate on their side.
Delay was easily brought about by them. They
had money, connections, influence, and that famil
iarity with men and ways which came from their
residence in England; while Franklin, a stranger
on an unpopular errand, representing before an



74 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

aristocratic government a parcel of tradespeople
and farmers who lived in a distant land and were
charged with being both niggardly and disaffected,
found that he could make only difficult and uncer
tain progress. He was like one who sails a race
not only against hostile winds and tides, but also
in strange waters where the shoals and rocks are
unknown, and where invisible currents ceaselessly
baffle his course. His lack of personal importance
hampered him exasperatiiigly. Thus during his
prolonged stay he repeatedly made every effort in
his power to obtain an audience of William Pitt.
But not even for once could he succeed. A pro
vincial agent, engaged in a squabble about taxing
proprietary lands, was too small a man upon too
small a business to consume the precious time of
the great prime minister, who was endeavoring
to dominate the embroilments and intrigues of all
Europe, to say nothing of the machinations of his
opponents at home. So the subalterns of Mr. Pitt
met Franklin, heard what he had to say, sifted it
through the sieve of their own discretion, and bore
to the ears of their principal only such compends
as they thought worthy of attention.

But the vexation of almost endless delay had its
alleviations, apparently much more than enough
to offset it. Early in September, 1757, that is
to say some five or six weeks after his landing,
Franklin was taken very ill of an intermittent
fever, which lasted for eight weeks. During his
convalescence he wrote to his wife that the agree-



REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 75

able conversation of men of learning, and the
notice taken of him by persons of distinction,
soothed him under this painful absence from fam
ily and friends ; yet these solaces would not hold
him there another week, were it not for duty to
his country and the hope of being able to do it
service. But after the early homesickness wore
off, a great attachment for England took its place.
He found himself a man of note among scientists
there, who gave him a ready welcome and showed
a courteous and flattering recognition of his high
distinction in their pursuits. Thence it was easy
to penetrate into the neighboring circle of litera
ture, wherein he made warm personal friends,
such as Lord Kames, David Hume, Dr. Robertson,
and others. From time to time he was a guest at
many a pleasant country seat, and at the univer
sities. He found plenty of leisure, too, for travel,
and explored the United Kingdom very thoroughly.
When he went to Edinburgh he was presented
with the freedom of the city ; and the University
of St. Andrews conferred on him the degree of
Doctor of Laws ; later, Oxford did the same. He
even had time for a trip into the Low Countries.
As months and finally years slipped away, with
just enough of occupation of a dignified character
to save him from an annoying sense of idleness,
with abundant opportunities for social pleasure,
and with a very gratifying deference shown
towards himself, Franklin, who liked society and
did not dislike flattery, began to think the mother



76 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

country no such bad place. For an intellectual
and social career London certainly had advan
tages over Philadelphia. Mr. Strahan, the well-
known publisher of those days, whom Franklin
used affectionately to call Straney, became his
close friend, and was very insistent with him that
he should leave the provinces and take up a
permanent residence in England. He baited his
hook with an offer of his son in marriage with
Franklin s daughter Sarah. He had never seen
Sarah, but he seems to have taken it for granted
that any child of her father must be matrimonially
satisfactory. Franklin wrote home to his wife
that the young man was eligible, and that there
were abundant funds in the Strahan treasury, but
that he did not suppose that she would be able to
overcome her terror of the ocean voyage. Indeed,
this timidity on the part of his wife was more than
once put forward by him as if it were really the
feather which turned the scale in the choice of his
future residence.

Franklin himself also was trying his hand at
match-making. He had taken a great fancy to a
young lady by the name of Mary Stevenson, with
whom, when distance prevented their meeting, he
kept up a constant correspondence concerning
points of physical science. He now became very
pressing with his son William to wed this learned
maiden ; but the young man possibly did not hold
a taste for science to be the most winning trait in
woman; at any rate, having bestowed his affec-



REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 77

tions elsewhere, he refused to transfer them. So
Franklin was compelled to give up his scheme,
though with an extreme reluctance, which he
expressed to the rejected damsel with amusing
openness. Had either of these matrimonial bonds
been made fast, it is not improbable that Franklin
would have lived out the rest of his life as a friend
of the colonies in England. But his lot was
otherwise cast; a second time he escaped, though
narrowly, the prospect of dying an Englishman
and the subject of a king. At the moment lie was
not altogether glad that matters worked thus. On
August 17, 1762, he wrote from Portsmouth to
Lord Kames :

" 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."

And six days later, from the same place, he
wrote to Strahan : " I cannot, I assure you, quit
even this disagreeable place, without regret, as it
carries me still farther from those I love, and from
the opportunities of hearing of their welfare. The
attraction of reason is at present for the other
side of the water, but that of inclination will be
for this side. You know which usually prevails.



78 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

I shall probably make but this one vibration and
settle here forever. Nothing will prevent it, if I
can, as I hope I can, prevail with Mrs. F. to
accompany me, especially if we have a peace."
Apparently the Americans owe a great debt of
gratitude to Mrs. Franklin s fearfumess of the
untrustworthy Atlantic.

Before dismissing this stay of Franklin in Eng
land a word should be said concerning his efforts
for the retention of Canada by the British, as
spoils of war. The fall of Quebec, in the autumn
of 1759, practically concluded the struggle in
America. The French were utterly spent; they
had no food, no money; they had fought with de
sperate courage and heroic self-devotion ; they could
honestly say that they had stood grimly in the last
trench, and had been slaughtered there until the
starved and shattered remnant could not find it in
their exhausted human nature longer to conduct
a contest so thoroughly finished. In Europe,
France was hardly less completely beaten. At
the same time the singular position of affairs
existed that the triumphant conqueror was even
more resolutely bent upon immediate peace than
were the conquered. George III., newly come to
the throne, set himself towards this end with all
the obstinacy of his resolute nature. It became
a question of terms, and eager was the discussion
thereof. The colonies were profoundly interested,
for a question sharply argued was : whether Eng
land should retain Guadaloupe or Canada. She



REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 79

had conquered both, but it seemed to be admitted
that she must restore one. It was even then a
comical bit of political mathematics to establish
anything like an equation between the two, nor
could it possibly have been done with reference to
intrinsic values. It was all very well to dilate
upon the sugar crop of the island, its trade, its
fertility, its harborage. Every one knew that
Canada could outweigh all these things fifty times
over. But into the Guadaloupe scale was dropped
a weighty consideration, which was clearly stated
in an anonymous pamphlet attributed to William
Burke. This writer said:

" If the people of our colonies find no check from
Canada, they will extend themselves almost without
bound into the inland parts. They will increase infi
nitely from all causes. What the consequence will be,
to have a numerous, hardy, independent people, possessed
of a strong country, communicating little or not at all
with England, I leave to your own reflections. By
eagerly grasping at extensive territory we may run the
risk, and in no very distant period, of losing what we
now possess. A neighbor that keeps us in some awe is
not always the worst of neighbors. So that, far from
sacrificing Guadaloupe to Canada, perhaps, if we might
have Canada without any sacrifice at all, we ought not
to desire it. There should be a balance of power in
America. . . . The islands, from their weakness, can
never revolt ; but, if we acquire all Canada, we shall
soon find North America itself too powerful and too
populous to be governed by us at a distance."



80 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

From many other quarters came the same warn
ing predictions. 1

Franklin watched the controversy with deep
interest and no small anxiety. As the argument
grew heated he could no longer hold his hand ; he
cast into the Canadian scale an able pamphlet,
ingenuous in the main if not in all the details. It
is not worth while to rehearse what he had to say
upon mercantile points, or even concerning the
future growth of a great American empire. What
he had really to encounter was the argument that
it was sound policy to leave Canada in possession
of the French. Those who pretended to want
Guadaloupe did not so much really want it as they
did wish to have Canada remain French. To
make good this latter point they had to show, first,
that French ownership involved no serious danger
to the English possessions: second, that it brought
positive advantages. To the first proposition they
said that the French had fully learned their les
son of inferiority, and that a few forts on the
frontier would easily overawe the hostile Indians.
To the second proposition, they elaborated the argu
ments of William Burke. Franklin replied that
the war-parties of braves would easily pass by the
forts in the forests, and after burning, pillaging,
murdering, and scalping, would equally easily
and safely return. Nothing save a Chinese wall
the whole length of the western frontier would
suffice for protection against savages. Then, with

1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 363-365.



REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 81

one of those happy illustrations of which he was
a master, he said : " In short, long experience has
taught our planters that they cannot rely upon
forts as a security against Indians ; the inhabitants
of Hackney might as well rely upon the Tower of
London, to secure them against highwaymen and
house-breakers." The admirable simile could nei
ther be answered nor forgotten.

Concerning the positive desirability of leaving
the French as masters of Canada to "check " the
growth of the colonies, Franklin indignantly ex
claimed: "It is a modest word, this check for
massacring men, women, and children! " If Can
ada is to be "restored on this principle, . . . will
not this be telling the French in plain terms, that
the horrid barbarisms they perpetrate with Indians
on our colonists are agreeable to us; and that they
need not apprehend the resentment of a govern
ment with whose views they so happily concur."
But he had the audacity to say that he was abun
dantly certain that the mother country could never
have any occasion to dread the power of the colo
nies. He said :

I shall next consider the other supposition, that their
growth may render them -dangerous. Of this, I own,
I have not the least conception, when I consider that
we have already fourteen separate governments on the
maritime coast of the continent ; and, if we extend our
settlements, shall probably have as many more behind
them on the inland side." By reason of the different
governors, laws, interests, religions, and manners of



82 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

these, " their jealousy of each other is so great, that,
however necessary a union of the colonies has long been,
for their common defence and security against their
enemies, and how sensible soever each colony has been
of that necessity, yet they have never been able to effect
such a union among themselves, nor even to agree in re
questing the mother country to establish it for them."
If they could not unite for self-defence against the
French and the murderous savages, " can it reasonably
be supposed there is any danger of their uniting against
their own nation, which protects and encourages them,
with which they have so many connexions and ties of
blood, interest, and affection, and which, it is well
known, they all love much more than they love one
another ?

" In short there are so many causes that must operate
to prevent it, that I will venture to say a union amongst
them for such a purpose is not merely improbable, it is
impossible. And if the union of the whole is impossible,
the attempt of a part must be madness. . . . When I
say such a union is impossible, I mean without the most
grievous tyranny and oppression. . . . The waves do
not rise but when the winds blow. . . . What such an
administration as the Duke of Alva s in the Netherlands
might produce, I know not ; but this, I think, I have a
right to deem impossible."

We read these words, even subject to the mild
saving of the final sentences, with some bewilder
ment. Did their shrewd and well-informed writer
believe what he said ? Was he casting this politi
cal horoscope in good faith? Or was he only
uttering a prophecy which he desired, if possible,



REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 83

and for his own purposes to induce others to be
lieve? If he was in earnest, Attorney-General
Pratt was a better astrologer. "For all what you
Americans say of your loyalty," he said to Frank
lin, "and notwithstanding your boasted affection,
you will one day set up for independence." "No
such idea," said Franklin, "is entertained by the
Americans, or ever will be, unless you grossly
abuse them." "Very true," said Pratt; "that I
see will happen, and will produce the event." 1
Choiseul, the able French minister, expressed his
wonder that the "great Pitt should be so attached
to the acquisition of Canada," which, being in the
hands of France, would keep the "colonies in
that dependence which they will not fail to shake
off the moment Canada shall be ceded." 2 Ver-
gennes saw the same thing not less clearly; and
so did many another.

If Franklin was really unable to foresee in this
business those occurrences which others predicted
with such confidence, at least he showed a grand
conception of the future, and his vision took in
more distant and greater facts and larger truths
of statesmanship than were compassed by the Brit
ish ministers. Witness what he wrote to Lord
Kames :

" I have long been of opinion that the foundations of
the future grandeur and stability of the British empire
lie in America. ... I am therefore by no means for
restoring Canada. If we keep it, all the country from

1 Bancroft, Hist. U. S. iv. 380. 2 Ibid. iv. 399.



84 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi will in another cen
tury be filled with British people. Britain itself will
become vastly more populous by the immense increase
to its commerce ; the Atlantic sea will be covered with
your trading ships ; and your naval power, thence con
tinually increasing, will extend your influence round the
whole globe, and awe the w r orld."

Whatever regret, Franklin may have felt at not
being able to remain in England was probably
greatly mitigated if not entirely dissipated by the
cordial reception which he met with at home. On
December 2, 1762, he wrote to Strahan that the
reports of the diminution of his friends were all
false; that ever since his arrival his house had
been full of a succession of them from morning
till night, congratulating him on his return. The
Assembly honored him with a vote of thanks, and
also voted him <3000 towards defraying his ex
penses. It was, of course, much less than he had
expended during an absence of nearly six years ;
but it seems that he considered that, since much of
his time had been passed in the enjoyment of an
agreeable leisure, he should bear a corresponding
part of the expense. While on the sea he had
been chosen unanimously, as indeed had been done
in each year of his absence, a member of that
body ; and he was told that, if he had not got so
privately into town, he should have been met by
an escort of 500 horsemen. All this must have
been very gratifying.

A different kind of tribute, somewhat indirect,




9^







REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND 85

but none the less intelligible, was at the same time
paid to him by the British government. In the
autumn of 1762 his illegitimate son, William
Franklin, was appointed governor of New Jersey.
This act created a great storm of wrath from some
of the provincial aristocratic party, and was ve
hemently railed at as an "indignity," a "dishonor
and disgrace," an "insult." After all, it failed
of its obvious purpose. The government shot
brought down the wrong bird, common carrion,
while the one aimed at never swerved in the slight
est from his course. William, whom no one cared
for in the least, became a confirmed royalist, and
ultimately, as a Tory refugee, for years continued
to absorb a pension for which he could return
no adequate consideration. So far as Benjamin
Franklin was concerned, he was at first much
pleased; but his political views and course were
not in the slightest degree affected. On the con
trary, as the scheme developed, and the influence
on the younger man became apparent, the final
result was an alienation between father and son,
which was only partially healed so late as 1784,
just before the former returned from Europe for
the last time.



CHAPTER IV

LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA

WHEN Franklin came home he was fifty-six
years old. By nature he was physically indolent,
and fifteen years ago he had given proof of his de
sire for the command of his own time by retiring
from a lucrative business. But his forecasting
of a tranquil, social career in Philadelphia, with
science as his chief and agreeable occupation, was
still to continue a day-dream, interrupted only by
some thoughts of an English home. "Business,
public and private, consumes all my time; I must
return to England for repose. With such thoughts
I flatter myself, and need some kind friend to put
me often in mind that old trees cannot safely be
transplanted." Thus he wrote to Mary Steven
son, the young lady whom he had hoped to have
as a daughter-in-law.

His first labor in the provinces came in the
shape of a journey about the country to supervise
and regulate the postal business. Upon this
errand he went 1600 miles, which was no slight
matter as travel was conducted in those days. He
started in the spring of 1763, and did not get back
until November. Upon his return he found him-



LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 87

self at once immersed in public affairs. In Oc
tober, 1763, Governor Hamilton was superseded
by John Penn, nephew of the proprietary Thomas
Penn.

" Never," said Franklin, " did any administration
open with a more promising prospect than this of Gov
ernor Penn. He assured the people in his first speeches
of the proprietaries paternal regard for them, and their
sincere dispositions to do everything that might promote
their happiness. As the proprietaries had been pleased
to promote a son of the family to the government, it was
thought not unlikely that there might be something in
these professions ; for that they would probably choose
to have his administration made easy and agreeable, and
to that end might think it prudent to withdraw those
harsh, disagreeable, and unjust instructions, with which
most of his predecessors had been hampered. The As
sembly therefore believed fully and rejoiced sincerely.
They showed the new governor every mark of respect
and regard that was in their power. They readily and
cheerfully went into everything he recommended to
them."

Moreover, the first event of public importance
after Governor Penn s advent had, in its early
stage, the effect of drawing him very closely to
Franklin. Some of the settlers on the frontier,