mon defence, and which at once declared in favour of dissolving the political connection with Great Britain.

Franklin soon became one of the most active men in the contest between England and the Colonies, which resulted in the declaration of independence, July 4, 1776, and in the establishment of what has since been known as the Republic of the United States. Towards the end of 1776 he was sent as special envoy to France to negotiate a treaty of alliance. His fame as a philosopher and statesman had already preceded him, and he was received with every mark of consideration and respect. His mission to France was successful, and in February, 1778, he signed a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, between France and the United States. This produced war between England and France, which lasted for several y

1 years. However, in September, 1783, the British government recognized the independence of the United States, and Franklin signed the treaty of peace between the mother country and her revolted colonies.

He continued to discharge the duties of minister plenipotentiary to France until 1785, when, in consequence of his advancing age and infirmities, he was relieved of the post at his own request. Reaching Philadelphia in September of that year, he was elected almost immediately president of the State of

Pennsylvania. To this office he was twice unanimously re-elected. During the period of his service as president he was sent as a delegate from his state to the convention which framed the constitution of the United States. In 1788, that is, at the end of his third term as president of the Supreme Council, Franklin retired into private life, after having spent upwards of forty years in the public service of his country. He died at Philadelphia, full of years and honours, at the age of eighty-four, on the 17th of April, 1790.

After his death a general mourning of two months was ordered by Congress as a tribute to the memory of one who had done so much by his wisdom and his activity in establishing the Republic.

In addition to his political, miscellaneous, and philosophical compositions, Franklin wrote several papers in the American Transactions, and two volumes of Essays, all of which have been carefully collected and edited. In all his writings is evidenced his wonderful gift of shrewd common-sense and practical wisdom. These are seen from end to end of his Autobiography. His "weather eye" is always openupon himself as well as upon others; and while he neither deceives himself nor allows others to deceive him, so he takes care not to deceive his readers. He tells us that he sets some things down out of vanity, and that though his pride may be scotched, it cannot

be killed. He holds, indeed, that these qualities are right in their place; but he tries to keep them in their true place and subjection. His revelation of himself is a very frank one-almost the frankest that has ever been written; and it is full of wise hints for those who know how to take them. Goethe wrote

his life, but he called it "Truth and Poetry" (Wahrheit und Dichtung), and Renan tells us that when men write their lives it is mostly poetry they set down. Franklin seems to have written only the truth, leaving out the poetry; and yet there is not wanting a fine and even a grand thread of poetry running through that active and ever-striving life, that began as a printer's boy and ended as one of the foremost makers of a nation, who, despite his political occupations, ranked also among the leading philosophical and scientific men of his time.

Not the least remarkable point in Franklin's career is the fact that, notwithstanding the scientific eminence he attained, he was able to devote but seven or eight years in all to his scientific researches before his talents were required in the more active sphere of politics. Yet in that time he not only made his famous electrical discoveries, but instituted those researches into the course of storms across the American continent which mark an epoch in the science of meteorology, and have greatly aided in the development of land and ocean telegraphy. His name is