you.

You will certainly find it more difficult to retain the colonies, than you do Ireland. Ireland is near you, and under your constant inspection; all officers are dependent and removable at pleasure. The colonies are remote, and the officers generally more disposed to please the people than the king or his representative. In Ireland you have always the ultima ratio, [a standing army] in the colonies you are either destitute of it, or you have no civil magistrate to direct the use of it."

Mr. Wedderburn after a review of the arguments of counsel, and the customary eulogies on the loyalty and services of his clients, evading the examination of the matter in complaint, directed himself to an inculpation of the assembly and people of Massachusetts, and intemperately against the character and conduct of Dr. Franklin generally, but particularly in the case of the letters.

"The letters could not have come to Dr. Franklin," said Mr. Wedderburn, "by fair means. The writers did not give them to him, nor yet did the deceased correspondent, who, from our intimacy, would otherwise have told me of it: nothing then will acquit Dr. Franklin of the charge of obtaining them by fraudulent or corrupt means, for the most malignant of purposes; unless he stole them, from the person who stole them. This argument is irrefragable.

"I hope, my lords, you will mark and brand the man, for the honor of this country, of Europe, and of mankind. Private correspondence has hitherto been held sacred in times of the greatest party rage, not only in politics but religion." "He has forfeited all the respect of societies and of men. Into what companies will he hereafter go with an unembarrassed face, or the honest intrepidity of virtue. Men will watch him with a jealous eye, they will hide their papers from him, and lock up their escrutoires. He will henceforth esteem it a libel to be called a man of letters, homo TRIUM3 literarum!

"But he not only took away the letters from one brother but kept himself concealed till he nearly occasioned the

6.i. e. Fur. (or thief.)

murder of the other. It is impossible to read his account, expressive of the coolest and most deliberate malice, without horror." [Here he read the letter of Dr. Franklin printed in the Public Advertiser.]—Amidst these tragical events, of one person nearly murdered, of another answerable for the issue; of a worthy governor hurt in his dearest interests; the fate of America in suspense; here is a man, who, with the utmost insensibility of remorse, stands up and avows himself the author of all:....I can compare it only to Zanga in Dr. Young's Revenge?

"Know then 'twas.....I

I forged the letter,.....I disposed the picture;.:

I hated,....I dispised,....and I destroy.

"I ask, my lords, whether the revengful temper, attributed by poetic fiction only to the bloody African, is not surpassed by the coolness and apathy of the wily American?"

These pleadings for a time worked great effects; the lords assented, the town was convinced, Dr. Franklin was dismissed, and Mr. Wedderburn placed himself in the road for that high advancement which he sought, and with which he was rewarded.-Unfortunately for Mr. Wedderburn, the events of the war did not correspond with his system. Unfortunately too for his "irrefragable argument," Dr. Franklin afterwards took an oath in chancery, that at the time that he transmitted the letters, he was ignorant of the party to whom they had been addressed, having himself received them from a third person, and for the express purpose of their being conveyed to America. Unfortunately also for Mr. Wedderburn's "worthy governor," that governor himself, before the arrival of Dr. Franklin's packet in Boston, sent over one of Dr. Franklin's own private" letters to England, expressing some little coyness indeed upon the occasion, but desiring secrecy, lest he should be prevented procuring more useful intelligence from the same source? Whether Mr. Wedderburn in his speech intended

7 Act. Vth.

8 He was dismissed from his station in the post-office, which he first established. 9 See the Remembrancer for the year 1776, part 2d. p. 61. col, ist. and 2ḍ VOL. IV.

X

to draw a particular case and portraiture, for the purpose only of injuring Dr. Franklin, or meant that his language and epithets should apply generally to all, whether friends or foes, whose practice should be found similar to it, is a matter not of so much importance.

But to return to Dr. Franklin. It was not singular perhaps, that, as a man of honor, he should surrender his name to public scrutiny in order to prevent mischief to others, and yet not betray his coadjutor (even to his death) to relieve his own fame from the severest obloquy; but perhaps it belonged to few besides Dr. Franklin, to possess mildness and magnanimity enough to refrain from intemperate expressions and measures against Mr. Wedderburn and his supporters, after all that had passed. There is in a note, in the hand writing of Dr. Franklin, in the possession of the Philadelphia editor, where he observes on the word duty, in the close of his letter in the Public Advertiser, as follows:

"Governor Hutchinson, as appears by his letters, since found and published in New England, had the same idea of duty, when he procured copies of Dr. Franklin's letters to the assembly, and sent them to the ministry of England."

The result of the deliberations of the committee of the privy council was such as might be expected from the complacency with which they had heard Mr. Wedderburn, and the general fatuity that appears to have governed the councils of the British nation at the time.

The privy council made a report in which was expressed the following opinion.

"The lords of the committee do agree humbly to report, as their opinion to your majesty, that the petition is founded upon resolutions formed on false and erroneous allegations; and is groundless, vexatious, and scandalous, and calculated only for the seditious purpose of keeping up a spirit of clamor and discontent in the said province. And the lords of the committee do further humbly report to your majesty, that nothing has been laid before them which does or can, in their opinion, in any manner, or in any degree, impeach the honor, integrity, or conduct of the said

governor or lieutenant-governor; and their lordships are humbly of opinion, that the said petition ought to be dismissed.

Feb. 7th, 1774. "His majesty, taking the said report into consideration, was pleased, with the advice of his privycouncil, to approve thereof; and to order, that the said petition of the house of representatives of the province of Massachusett's Bay be dismissed the board-as groundless, vexatious, and scandalous; and calculated only for the seditious purpose of keeping up a spirit of clamor and discontent in the said province."

A former petition against governor Bernard met with a dismission couched in similar terms.

THE Essay that follows was orginally published in 1774; and is the joint work of George Whately, and Dr. Franklin. The original work was indeed written by the former; and communicated to the latter; who rarely ever perused a literary production without correcting, improving, or augmenting its force and value, from his own sources. The corrections and additions which were made by Dr. Franklin, produced an amicable controversy between them, who had the best claim to call himself the author of it, which was closed by a determination to publish it, without any name, but under this designation"By a well wisher to the king and country." Dr. Franklin who was never so solicitous about the reputation as about the practical utility of his writings, continued to consider his friend Mr. Whately as the author; and persisted even to the last in that sentiment; for in a letter of the 24th of August, 1784, from Paris, addressed to him in the words, "My dear old Friend," he requests a copy of your excellent little work--" The Principles of Trade." The letter will be found in its proper place in this edition among the miscellaneous correspondence. The whole work is given here, because with whatever success the seperation might be accomplished, of what belongs to the one or the other, the separate parts would be each incomplete; and the whole is particularly worthy of pre

servation.

PRINCIPLES OF TRADE.

Freedom and Protection are its best Support; Industry, the only Means to render Manufactures cheap.

Of Coins, Exchange, and Bounties, particularly the Bounty on Corn.

Commerce is generally understood to be the Basis, on which the power of this Country hath been raised; and on which it must ever stand.

Tous les sujets doivent leurs soins, et leurs lumieres, à l' etat.

DEDICATION.

TO all those, who have the welfare, and prosperity, of these kingdoms at heart; the following essay, containing, we hope, useful, and uncontrovertible principles, on the subjects treated of, is very heartily, and affectionately, inscribed.

IT is a vain imagination that we exist only for ourselves, or our particular country. The all-wise Creator has ordained that a mutual dependence shall run through all his works; and though our limited capacities will not admit us fully to comprehend the nature and end of this connected chain of things; yet we may, and indeed ought, to enquire into, and consider every thing which relates to our mutual dependence upon one another, and the springs and principles of our actions.

By this investigation we shall find, that our wants, whether real or ideal; our passions and our habits; are the springs of all our actions, and indeed, the movers of the general intercourse, and commerce, between one man and another, one country and another.

Most writers upon trade, have made it their business, to support and explain some particular branches of traffic; or some favorite hypothesis. We shall, in the ensuing essay,