ceive the proportion of the Parliamentary grant to hat colony for its expenses in the late war, amountmg to thirty thousand pounds. The governor in Pennsylvania opposed his appointment, and the proprietors in England labored to thwart him, but the ministry gave no heed to the opposition. The money was accordingly paid to Franklin, as the agent of the Assembly. He was directed to place it in the Bank of England, but that institution refused to receive it on the terms directed by the Assembly, it being contrary to their settled rules to take charge of money subject to the order of unknown persons residing in distant countries. By direction of the Assembly, the sum was invested in the stocks. An ill-timed resolve of the Assembly withdrew it from thence at a period when the low price of public securities occasioned a serious loss. The withdrawal, as well as the investment, was managed by Franklin, under instructions from the Assembly. After Franklin's return to America, the House appointed a committee to examine his accounts, who “found the same to be just." The proprietor, Thomas Penn, wrote to the governor of Pennsylvania, "I think the Assembly made a very handsome allowance to Mr. Franklin, though short of his expenses; but what I most admire at is, that they have made an allowance for his loss in the stocks, which they had no power by law to do, and which ought to have been made good to the public by him and those members of the House that gave him directions to do it."

If it was a curious notion of the proprietor that

"those members," meaning the majority of the Assembly, ought to have borne the loss suffered by the above transaction, there was at least some semblance of equity in the opinion. But Franklin's political enemies, on a subsequent occasion, endeavored to throw obloquy upon him in a public and formal manner, for what it will easily be seen was no fault or error of his. The trust was an arduous one, and he fulfilled it to the hearty approval of his constituents. That some of these very men afterward endeavored to make political capital of so plain a transaction, is only one of the thousands of instances in which ardent partisans forget past acts and declarations to subserve a present purpose, and sacrifice truth and candor in the heat of party feeling.

Besides the evidences of private friendship to which we have referred, honorable testimony to the estimation in which Franklin was held was given in the appointment of his son, William Temple Franklin, governor of New Jersey. As there was nothing in the character and claims of the son to call the attention of the ministry to him, this appointment may be set down to the credit of the father. If it was intended as a bribe, or to purchase compliance, it certainly was not given in pursuance of any pledge or promise, implied or expressed, on the part of Dr. Franklin. Thomas Penn, in a letter to Governor Hamilton, expressed the belief that the appointment would make the father "more tractable," as he "could not well oppose in Pennsylvania" what the son was instructed o do in New Jersey. But

ever.

Dr. Franklin remained the same sturdy patriot as While the son became loyal in the hour of difficulty between the colonies and the mother country, his course, so far from influencing the father, procured the marked rebuke of the parent in that most emphatic of all acts, his last will and testa

ment.

Dr. Franklin sailed from England in August, 1762, and arrived at Philadelphia on the first of November following. He left England with much pain at parting with the friends that his long stay had endeared to him. The following account of the incidents of his voyage, and of his reception at home, is extracted from a letter to Lord Kames, written three years afterward; and although it anticipates the narrative somewhat, we insert it, as resembling, in its easy, colloquial style, the Autobiography:

"You require my history from the time I set sail for America. I left England about the end of August, 1762, in company with ten sail of merchant ships, under a convoy of a man-of-war. We had a pleasant passage to Madeira, where we were kindly received and entertained, our nation being then in high honor with the Portuguese, on account of the protection we were then affording them against the united invasions of France and Spain. It is a fertile island, and the different heights and situations among its mountains afford such temperaments of air, that all the fruits of northern and southern countries are produced there: corn, grapes, apples, peach.

es, oranges, lemons, plantains, bananas, &c. Here we furnished ourselves with fresh provisions, and refreshments of all kinds; and, after a few days, proceeded on our voyage, running southward until we got into the trade winds, and then with them westward, till we drew near the coast of America. The weather was so favorable that there were few days in which we could not visit from ship to ship, dining with each other, and on board of the man-of-war, which made the time pass agreeably, much more so than when one goes in a single ship; for this was like traveling in a moving village, with all one's neighbors about one.

"On the 1st of November I arrived safe and well at my own home, after an absence of near six years; found my wife and daughter well, the latter grown quite a woman, with many amiable accomplishments acquired in my absence; and my friends as hearty and affectionate as ever, with whom my house was filled for many days, to congratulate me on my return. I had been chosen yearly during my absence to represent the city of Philadelphia in our provincial Assembly, and, on my appearance in the House, they voted me three thousand pounds sterling for my services in England, and their thanks, delivered by the speaker. In February following my son arrived with my new daughter; for, with my consent and approbation, he married, soon after I left England, a very agreeable West India lady, with whom he is very happy. I accompanied him to his government, where he met with the kindest recep

tion from the people of all ranks, and has lived with them ever since in the greatest harmony. A river only parts that province and ours, and his residence is within seventeen miles of me, so that we frequently see each other.

"In the spring of 1763 I set out on a tour through all the northern colonies to inspect and regulate the post-offices in the several provinces. In this journey I spent the summer, traveled about sixteen hundred miles, and did not get home till the beginning of November. The Assembly sitting through the following winter, and warm disputes arising between them and the governor, I became wholly engaged in public affairs; for, besides my duty as an Assemblyman, I had another trust to execute, that of being one of the commissioners appointed by law to dispose of the public money appropriated to the raising and paying an army to act against the Indians and defend the frontiers. And then, in December, we had two insurrections of the back inhabitants of our province, by whom twenty poor Indians were murdered, that had, from the first settlement of the province, lived among us, under the protection of our government. This gave me a good deal of employment; for, as the rioters threatened further mischief, and their actions seemed to be approved by an everacting party, I wrote a pamphlet entitled "A Narrative, &c." (which I think I sent to you) to strengthen the hands of our weak government, by rendering the proceedings of the rioters unpopular and odious. This had a good effect; and afterward, when a great