nothing of you, or your affairs, said he; I only perceive that you know one another.

The conductor of a newspaper, should, methinks, consider himself as in some degree the guardian of his country's reputation, and refuse to insert such writings as may hurt it. If people will print their abuses of one another, let them do it in little pamphlets, and distribute them where they think proper. It is absurd to trouble all the world with them; and unjust to subscribers in distant places, to stuff their paper with matters so unprofitable and so disagreeable. With sincere esteem and affection, I am, my dear friend, ever yours, B. FRANKLIN.

To the Right Honorable Earl of Buchan.

MY LORD,

Passy, March 17, 1783.

I RECEIVED the letter your lordship did me the honor of writing to me, and am obliged by your kind congratulations on the return of peace, which I hope will be lasting.

With regard to the terms on which lands may be acquired in America, and the manner of beginning new settlements on them, I cannot give better information than may be found in a book lately printed in London, under some such title as Letters from a Pennsylvanian Farmer, by Hector St. John. The only encouragements we hold out to strangers are, a good climate, fertile soil, wholesome air and water, plenty of provisions and fuel, good pay for labour, kind neighbors, good laws, liberty, and a hearty welcome: the rest depends on a man's own industry and virtue. Lands are cheap, but they must be bought. All settlements are undertaken at private expense: the public contributes nothing but defence and justice. I should not however expect much emigration from a country so much drained of men as yoursh must have been by the late war; since the more have left it, the more room,

Scotland.

and the more encouragement remains for those who staid at home. But this you can best judge of; and I have long observed of your people, that their sobriety, frugality, industry, and honesty, seldom fail of success in America, and of procuring them a good establishment among us.

I do not recollect the circumstance you are pleased to mention, of my having saved a citizen at St. Andrew, by giving a turn to his disorder; and I am curious to know what the disorder was, and what the advice I gave which proved so salutary.i

With great regard I have the honour to be, my lord, your lordship's most obedient and most humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN.

To Mrs. Hewson.k

Passy January 27, 1783. THE departure of my dearest friend,' which I learn from your last letter greatly affects me. To meet with her once more in this life was one of the principal motives of my propos ing to visit England again before my return to America. The last year carried off my friends Dr. Pringle and Dr. Fothergill, and lord Kaimes and lord Le Despencer; this has begun to take away the rest, and strikes the hardest. Thus the ties I had to that country, and indeed to the world in general, are loosened one by one; and I shall soon have no attachment left to make me unwilling to follow.

I intended writing when I sent the eleven books, but lost

i It was a fever in which the earl of Buchan, then lord Cadross, lay sick at St. Andrew's; and the advice was, not to blister, according to the old practice, and the opinion of the learned Dr. Simson, brother of the celebrated geometrician at Glasgow.

Widow of the eminent anatomist of that name, and formerly Miss STEVENSON, to whom several of Dr. Franklin's letters on Philosophical subjects are addressed.

'Refers to Mrs. Hewson's mother.

the time in looking for the first. I wrote with that; and hope it came to hand. I therein asked your counsel about my coming to England: on reflection I think I can from my knowledge of your prudence foresee what it will be; viz. not to come too soon, lest it should seem braving and insulting some who ought to be respected. I shall therefore omit that journey till I am near going to America, and then just step over to take leave of my friends, and spend a few days with you. I purpose bringing Ben with me, and perhaps may leave him under your care.

At length we are in peace, God be praised; and long, very long may it continue. All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones: when will mankind be convinced of this, and agree to settle their differences by arbitration? were they to do it even by the cast of a die, it would be better than by fighting and destroying each other.

Spring is coming on, when travelling will be delightful. Can you not, when your children are all at school, make a little party and take a trip hither? I have now a large house, delightfully situated, in which I could accommodate you and two or three friends; and I am but half an hour's drive from Paris.

In looking forward, twenty-five years seems a long period; but in looking back, how short! could you imagine that 'tis now full a quarter of a century since we were first acquainted! it was in 1757. During the greatest part of the time I lived in the same house with my dear deceased friend your mother; of course you and I saw and conversed with each other much and often. It is to all our honors, that in all that time we never had among us the smallest misunderstanding. Our friendship has been all clear sunshine, without any the least cloud in its hemisphere. Let me conclude by saying to you what I have had too frequent occasions to say to my other

m

Benjamin Franklin Bache, a grandson of Dr. Franklin, by his daughter Sarah; he was the first Editor of the AURORA at Philadelphia; he died of yellow fever in September, 1798.

remaining old friends, the fewer we become, the more let us

love one another.

Adieu, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

To the Lord Bishop of St. Asaph, (Dr. Shipley.)

Passy, March 17, 1783.

I RECEIVED with great pleasure my dear and respected friend's letter of the fifth instant, as it informed me of the welfare of a family I so much esteem and love.

The clamor against the peace in your parliament, would alarm me for its duration, if I were not of opinion with you, that the attack is rather against the minister. I am confident none of the opposition would have made a better peace for England, if they had been in his place; at least I am sure that lord Stormont, who seems loudest in railing at it, is not the man that could have mended it. My reasons I will give you, when I have, what I hope to have, the great happiness of seeing you once more and conversing with you. They talk much of there being no reciprocity in our treaty; they think nothing then of our passing over in silence the atrocities committed by their troops, and demanding no satisfaction for their wanton burnings and devastations of our fair towns and countries. They have heretofore confest the war to be unjust, and nothing is plainer in reasoning, than that the mischiefs done in an unjust war should be repaired. Can Englishmen be so partial to themselves, as to imagine they have a right to plunder and destroy as much as they please, and then without satisfying for the injuries they have done, to have peace on equal terms? We were favorable, and did not demand what justice entitled us to. We shall probably be blamed for it by our constituents: and I still think it would be the interest of England voluntarily to offer reparation of those injuries, and effect it as much as may be in her power. But this is an interest she will never see,

Let us now forgive and forget. Let each country seek its advancement in its own internal advantages of arts and agriculture, not in retarding or preventing the prosperity of the other. America will, with God's blessing, become a great and happy country; and England, if she has at length gained wisdom, will have gained something more valuable, and more essential to her prosperity, than all she has lost; and will still be a great and respectable nation. Her great disease at present, is the number and enormous salaries and emoluments of office. Avarice and ambition are strong passions, and separately act with great force on the human mind; but when both are united and may be gratified in the same object, their vioence is almost irresistible, and they hurry men headlong into factions and contentions destructive of all good government. As long therefore as these great emoluments subsist, your parliament will be a stormy sea, and your public councils confounded by private interests. But it requires much public spirit and virtue to abolish them; more perhaps than can now be found in a nation so long corrupted.

B. FRANKLIN.

To Sir Joseph Banks.

Passy, July 27, 1783.

DEAR SIR,

1

I RECEIVED your very kind letter by Dr. Blagden, and esteem myself much honored by your friendly remembrance. I have been too much and too closely engaged in public affairs since his being here, to enjoy all the benefit of his conversation you were so good as to intend me. I hope soon to have more leisure, and to spend a part of it in those studies that are much more agreeable to me than political operations.

I join with you most cordially in rejoicing at the return of peace. I hope it will be lasting, and that mankind will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cut