like there may be great impositions that are not properly

taxes.

Q. Is not the post-office rate an internal tax laid by act of parliament ?

4. I have answered that.

Q. Are all parts of the colonies equally able to pay taxes? A. No, certainly; the frontier parts, which have been ravaged by the enemy, are greatly disabled by that means; and therefore, in such cases, are usually favored in our tax-laws.

Q. Can we at this distance be competent judges of what favors are necessary?

A. The parliament have supposed it, by claiming a right to make tax-laws for America: I think it impossible.

Q. Would the repeal of the stamp-act be any discouragement of your manufactures?-Will the people that have begun to manufacture decline it?

A. Yes, I think they will; especially if, at the same time, the trade is opened again, so that remittances can be easily made. I have known several instances that make it probable. In the war before last, tobacco being low, and making little remittance, the people of Virginia went generally into familymanufactures. Afterwards, when tobacco bore a better price, they returned to the use of British manufactures. So fullingmills were very much disused in the last war in Pennsylvania, because bills were then plenty, and remittances could easily be made to Britain for English cloth and other goods.

Q. If the stamp-act should be repealed, would it induce the assemblies of America to acknowledge the rights of parliament to tax them, and would they erase their resolutions?

A. No, never.

Q. Is there no means of obliging them to erase those resolutions?

A. None that I know of: they will never do it unless compelled by force of arms.

Q. Is there a power on earth that can force them to erase them?

A. No power, how great soever, can force men to change their opinions.

Q. Do they consider the post-office as a tax, or as a regulation?

A. Not as a tax, but as a regulation and conveniency: every assembly encouraged it, and supported it in its infancy, by grants of money, which they would not otherwise have done; and the people have always paid the postage.

Q. When did you receive the instructions you mentioned?

A. I brought them with me, when I came to England, about fifteen months since.

Q. When did you communicate that instruction to the minister?

A. Soon after my arrival,-while the stamping of America was under consideration, and before the bill was brought in.

Q. Would it be most for the interest of Great Britain to employ the hands of Virginia in tobacco, or in the manufactures?

A. In tobacco, to be sure.

Q. What used to be the pride of the Americans?

A. To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain.

Q. What is now their pride?

A. To wear their old clothes over again, till they can make

new ones..

Withdrew.

See Appendix, p. 383.

APPENDIX.

No. v.

Account of Governor Hutchinson's Letters, and the Examination of Dr. Franklin before a Committee of the British Privy Council.

[Referred to, Part iii. p. 354, and seq. of MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE.]

GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON, lieutenant-governor Andrew Oliver, Charles Paxton, Esq., Nathaniel Rogers, Esq., and Mr. G. Roome, having sent from Boston certain representations and informations to Thomas Whately, Esq. member of parliament, private secretary to that Mr. George Grenville, who when in office was the father of the stamp act, and afterwards one of the lords of trade; these letters were placed by some friend to the interests of America, in the hands of Dr. Franklin, who, as an agent for the colonies, in discharge of his duty, had them conveyed back to Boston. The assembly of Massachusetts were so much exasperated, that they returned attested copies of the letters to England, accompanied by a petition and remonstrance, for the removal of governor Hutchinson, and lieutenant-governor Andrew Oliver, from their posts. The council of Massachusetts likewise, on their own part, entered into thirteen resolves, in tendency and import similar to the petition of the assembly; five of which resolves were unanimous, and only one of them had so many as three dissentients. In consequence of the assembly's petition, the following proceedings and examination took place.

Dr. Franklin had, from his station of agent for Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, naturally a large share in these transactions; having been also exposed to much indecent persecution, and attacks upon his character, by the ministers and their dependants, he was called upon by the natural constancy and vigor of his mind, to sustain himself and the trusts confided to him; and entered resolutely into those affairs. His examination in 1766, (See Appendix No. 1v.) had made an indelible impression on the government, from its force, its truth, the capacity and equanimity of the man; and the jealousy excited by the overwhelming evidence he gave, which proved so clearly the ignorance of ministers, and the impolicy of their measures towards America, caused him thenceforth to be looked upon with an eye of suspicion, if not of hatred. In this temper of the ministers it was that he addressed the following let ter, with the memorial, to the secretary of state.

To the Right Hon. the Earl of Dartmouth.

MY LORD,

London, Aug. 21, 1773.

I have just received from the house of representatives of the Massachusetts Bay, their address to the king, which I now enclose, and send to your lordship, with my humble request in their behalf, that you would be pleased to present it to his majesty the first convenient opportunity.

I have the pleasure of hearing from that province by my late letters, that a sincere disposition prevails in the people there to be on good terms with the mother country; that the assembly have declared their desire only to be put into the situation they were in before the stamp act: They aim at no novelties. And it is said, that having lately discovered, as they think, the authors of their grievances to be some of their own people, their resentment against Britain is thence much abated.

This good disposition of theirs (will your lordship permit me to say) may be cultivated by a favorable answer to this address, which I therefore hope your goodness will endeavor to obtain.

With the greatest respect,

I have the honor to be, my lord, &c.

B. FRANKLIN,

Agent for the House of Representatives.

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

We your majesty's loyal subjects, the representatives of your ancient colony of Massachusetts Bay, in general court legally assembled, by virtue of your majesty's writ under the hand and seal of the governor, beg leave to lay this our humble petition before your majesty.

Nothing but the sense of duty we owe to our sovereign, and the obligation we are under to consult the peace and safety of the province, could induce us to remonstrate to your majesty concerning the mal-conduct of persons, who have heretofore had the confidence and esteem of this people; and whom your majesty has been pleased, from the purest motives of rendering your subjects happy, to advance to the highest places of trust and authority in the province.

Your majesty's humble petitioners, with the deepest concern and anxiety, have seen the discords and animosities which have too long subsisted between your subjects of the parent state and those of the American colonies. And we have trembled with apprehensions that the consequences, naturally arising therefrom, would at length prove fatal to both countries.

Permit us humbly to suggest to your majesty, that your