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Observations such as these, by the London editor, carry in themselves the evidence of being written by some person intimately conversant with Franklin and his contemporaries, and with the history of the memorable period in which he held a place so pre-eminent. Before proceeding in the regular order proposed for this preface, it may be proper to dispose of the whole of this subject in a connected form, and to exhibit the matter offered in his defence by W. T. Franklin, as well as some facts not before published.

The vicissitudes of the revolution, particularly the occupation of Philadelphia by the British army in 1777, had exposed the papers and the library, which was ample and abundantly curious, and the manuscripts of Dr. Franklin, to dispersion; the family of Dr. F., after the peace, had not been successful in collecting much of the dispersed matter; and to a certainty much is still unrecovered; the fragments of the library which remained in America was most remarkably neglected, and unappreciated; in 1805, the remains of what had been unappropriated by the legatee, were thrown, like lumber, into the hands of a foreign bookseller, to be disposed of among the mass of second-hand books; some few parcels were caught at by curious and studious individuals, and a few transferred with a niggardly and shabby parsimony to some libraries which should have taken means to secure the whole for there were no books collected by Franklin which had not some peculiar value in relation to universal knowledge.

From fragments then snatched from oblivion, and other sources, not necessary to specify, an improved edition was undertaken in Philadelphia, in 1817, intended to embrace all that had been then collected, or that could be procured through a special application to men who had partaken in the transactions of the preceding half century, in Europe and America. Then it was that Mr. Temple Franklin reappeared in London, with a prospectus for the publication of the whole of his grandfather's writings. As the Philadelphia editor possessed much matter which was not in W. T. Franklin's possession, an arrangement was made for a consentaneous publication of all that was possessed by both, at the same time in London and Philadelphia. The London publication was in quarto, with an edition in octavo; that of Philadelphia in six volumes octavo, all of which, with much not published in any former edition, is comprehended in the two volumes which form the present edition.

On the publication in London, W. T. Franklin came forth with a preface, in which, for the first time, the imputations on his good faith were noticed and replied to, which preface also appeared in the Philadelphia edition. It forms a necessary part of the history of Dr. Franklin, and requires to be given in the very terms of the person implicated. It is as follows:

PREFACE.-By W. T. Franklin. An apology for presenting to the republic of letters, the authentic Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, illustrative of his life and times, written almost entirely with his own hand, would be at once superfluous and disrespectful. If any observation be at all requisite, in the shape of expla nation, it must be in answer to the inquiry, why such interesting documents have been so long withheld from the public view? In this the editor has no hesitation in replying, that were he conscious of having neglected a solemn trust, by disobeying a positive injunction; or could he be convinced, that the world had sustained any real injury by the delay of the publication, he certainly should take

shame to himself for not having sooner committed to the press what, at an earlier period, would have been much more to his pecuniary advantage. But aware, as he is, of the deference due to the general feeling of admiration for the illustrious dead, he is no less sensible that there are times and seasons when prudence imposes the restriction of silence in the gratification of the most laudable curiosity. "It was the lot of this distinguished character, above most men, to move in the prominent parts of his active life, within a sphere agitated to no ordinary degree of heat by the inflammatory passions of political fury; and he had scarcely seated himself in the shade of repose, from the turmoil of public employment, when another revolution burst forth, with far more tremendous violence; during the progress of which his name was adduced by anarchists as a sanction for their practices, and his authority quoted by dreaming theorists in support of their visionary projects. Whether, therefore, the publication of his Memoirs and other papers, amidst such a scene of perturbation, would have been conducive to the desirable ends of peace, may be a matter of question; but at all events the sober and inquisitive part of mankind can have no cause to regret the impression of what might have happened from the perverted talents of designing partisans and infuriated zealots. It may fairly be observed, that the writings of Dr. Franklin are calculated to serve a far more important purpose than that of ministering to the views of party, and keeping alive national dissensions, which, however necessitated by circumstances, ought to cease with the occasion, and yield to the spirit of philanthropy. Even amidst the din of war and the contention of faction, it was the constant aim of this excellent man to promote a conciliatory disposition, and to correct the acerbity of controversy. Though no one could feel more sensibly for the wrongs of his country, or have more enlarged ideas on the subject of general liberty, his powerful efforts to redress the one and extend the other were always connected with the paramount object of social improvement, in the recommendation of those habits which tend most effectually to unite men together in the bonds of amity. Happening, however, himself to live in a turbulent period, and called upon to take a leading part in those scenes which produced a new empire in the western world; much of his later memoirs and correspondence will be found to exhibit his undisguised thoughts upon the public men and occurrences of his day. These sketches, anecdotes, and reflections, will now be read by men of opposite sentiments without awakening painful recollections, or rekindling the dying embers of animosity; while the historian and the moralist may learn from them the secret springs of public events, and the folly of being carried away by political prejudices.

"While, therefore, some contracted minds in different countries may be querulously disposed to censure the delay that has taken place in the publication of these posthumous papers, it is presumed that the more considerate and liberal, on either side of the Atlantic, will approve of the motives which have operated for the procrastination, even though the period has so far exceeded the nonum prematur annum assigned by Horace, the oldest and best of critics, for the appearance of a finished performance.

"The editor, in offering this justificatory plea to the public, and taking credit for having exercised so much discretion as to keep these relics in his private custody till the return of halcyon days and a brightened horizon, when their true value might be best appreciated, feels that he has discharged his duty in that manner

which the venerable writer himself would have prescribed, could he have anticipated the disorders which have ravaged the most polished and enlightened states since his removal from this scene of pride and weakness; where nations as well as individuals have their periods of infancy and decrepitude, of moral vigour and wild derangement.

"Shortly after Dr. Franklin's death, there were not wanting the usual train of literary speculators to exercise their industry in collecting his avowed productions, together with those which public rumour ascribed to his pen. These miscellanies were printed in various forms both in England and America, greatly to the advantage of the publishers; nor did the possessor of the originals avail himself of the general avidity and the celebrity of his ancestor, to deprive those persons of the profits which they continued to reap from repeated editions of papers that had cost them nothing. When, however, they had reason to apprehend, that the genuine Memoirs and other works of Franklin, as written and corrected by himself, would be brought forward in a manner suitable to their importance, and the dignified rank of the author in the political and literary world, invidious reports were sent abroad, and circulated with uncommon diligence, asserting that all the literary remains of Dr. Franklin had been purchased at an enormous rate by the British ministry, who (mirabile dictu!) it seems were more afraid of this arsenal of paper than of the power of France, with all her numerous resources and auxiliaries. This convenient tale, absurd as it was, found reporters in Europe and in the United States, who bruited it about with so much art, as to make many who were unacquainted with the legatee of the manuscripts believe it to be true, and to lament feelingly, that such inestimable productions should be suppressed, and lost for ever, through the cupidity of the person to whom they were bequeathed. Provoking as the story was, the party whom it most affected, and whose interests it was designed to injure, felt too much of the conscia mens recti to do otherwise than to treat the ridiculous invention with contempt, from a persuasion that the refutation of an improbable falsehood is beneath the dignity of truth. therefore endured the opprobrium without complaint, and even suffered it to be repeated without being goaded into an explanation; contentedly waiting for the time when he might best fulfil his duty and shame his calumniators. That period has at length arrived, and the world will now see whether an enlightened government could be weak enough to be frightened by the posthumous works of a philosopher; or whether a man of integrity, bred under Franklin, bearing his name, and intrusted with his confidence, could be bribed into an act of treachery to his memory."

He

So far the preface is intended as a defensive reply to the imputations first made in the edition in three volumes, issued by Johnson, in London, in 1806. How far it fulfils the present purpose must be left to the judgment of history. Criticism is not the purpose of this introduction, else a very brief animadversion on the defence might at least show that the motives assigned for the suppression after the visit to London, are not such as would induce or justify a postponement of a publication previously proposed and prepared for at considerable expense; that the political opinions, theories, and discussions in the writings of Dr. Franklin were not in harmony, but in direct variance with the violences of the French revolution; and that they were adapted rather to repress than to afford any incen

tives in favour of violence or outrage, such as afflicted France in the convulsions which produced so many afflictions to the friends of liberty as well as to the adherents of despotism; that, on the contrary, the moderation and temperate reasoning of Franklin's political writings were rather to be feared by the advocates of legitimacy, than stimulatives to the pensioned apostles of discord and destruction, without reference to any argument founded on the personal circumstances of the legatee; the works, as they appear under his more authentic publication, afford very little matter in addition to what had been collected and published by booksellers in the fair pursuit of their business; nor did the first rumour of the suppression, in the edition of 1806, excite so much or such general attention as the circumstance would seem to call for, in the United States; where the hostility to the memory of Franklin's services, strange but true to tell, had found a body of animosity so ample as to produce a certain measure of exultation rather than of resentment or shame on the appearance of the rumour. In Europe the Edinburgh Review, in noticing the preface to the edition of 1806, did not overlook the alleged suppression; that article was copied into the Boston Monthly Anthology, No. 12, for December, 1806, from which a few short extracts will be pertinent to the pre

sent purpose.

"Nothing, we think, can show more clearly the singular want of literary enterprise or activity in the States of America, than that no one has been found in that flourishing republic to collect and publish the works of their only philosopher. It is not even creditable to the liberal curiosity of the English public, that there should be no complete edition of the works of Dr. Franklin till 1806; and we should have been altogether unable to account for the imperfect and unsatisfactory manner in which the task has been now performed, if it had not been for the prefatory advertisement, which removes all blame from the editor of that edition, to. attach it to a higher quarter."

Here the preface is quoted, and animadverted upon by the reviewer, in which he observes that the whole of Franklin's works were not political and republican, and that a variety of remarks and speculations said to have been left by him might have been permitted to see the light, though his diplomatic operations had been interdicted; and the reviewer thus proceeds:

"The emissary of government, however, probably took care of these things; he was resolved to leave no botches in his work;' and to stifle the dreaded revelation, he thought the best way was to strangle all the innocents in the vicinage. "This self-taught American is the most rational, perhaps, of all philosophers. He never loses sight of common sense in any of his speculations; and when his philosophy does not comport entirely in its fair and vigorous application, it is always regulated and controlled by it in its application and results. No individual, perhaps, ever possessed a juster understanding, or was so seldom obstructed in the use of it by indolence, enthusiasm, or authority.

"Regular education appears to be unfavourable to vigour and originality of understanding. We cannot help fancying that if Franklin had been bred in a college, he would have contented himself in expounding Pindar, and mixing argument with his port in the Common Room; and that if Boston had abounded with men of letters, he would never have ventured to come forth from his printing house, or been driven back to it, at any rate, by the sneers of the critics after the first publication of the Busy Body.

"There are not many among the thorough-bred scholars and philosophers of Europe who can lay claim to distinction in more than one or two departments of science and literature. The uneducated tradesman of America has left writings that call for our attention in natural philosophy-in politics-in political economy, and in general literature and morality. His examination before the House of Commons, in 1766, affords a striking proof of the extent and minuteness of his information, the clearness and force of his extempore composition, and the steadiness and self-possession which enabled him to display those qualities with. so much effect upon such an occasion. His letters before the commencement of hostilities are full of grief and anxiety; but no sooner did matters come to extremities, than he appears to have assumed a certain keen and confident cheerfulness, not unmixed with a sprinkling of asperity, and more vindictiveness than became a philosopher.

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Nothing can be more perfectly and beautifully adapted to its object than most of the moral compositions of Dr. Franklin. The tone of familiarity, of good will, and harmless jocularity; the plain and pointed illustrations; the short sentences, made up of short words; and the strong sense, clear information, and obvious conviction of the author himself, make most of his moral exhortations perfect models of popular eloquence, and often the finest specimens of a style which has been too little cultivated in his native country.

"The most remarkable thing, however, in these, and indeed in the whole of his physical speculations, is the unparalleled simplicity and facility with which the reader is conducted from one stage of the inquiry to another. The author never appears for a moment to labour or to be at a loss. The most ingenious and profound explanations are suggested, as if they were the most natural and obvious way of accounting for the phenomena; and the author seems to value himself so little on his most important discoveries, that it is necessary to compare him with others before we can form a just notion of his merits. As he seems to be conscious of no exertion, he feels no partiality for any part of his speculations, and never seeks to raise the reader's ideas of their importance, by any arts of declamation or eloquence. Indeed, the habitual precision of his conceptions, and his invariable practice of referring to specific facts and observations, secured him, in a great measure, both from extravagant conjectures, in which too many naturalists have indulged, and from the zeal and enthusiasm which seems so naturally to be engendered in their defence. He was by no means averse to give scope to his imagination in suggesting a variety of explanations of obscure and unmanageable phenomena; but he never allowed himself to confound these vague and conjectural theories with the solid results of experience and observation. In his meteorological papers, and in his observations upon heat and light, there is a great deal of such bold and original suggestion; but the author evidently sets little value on them, and has no sooner disburdened his mind of the impressions from which they proceeded, than he seems to dismiss them entirely from his consideration, and turns to the legitimate philosophy of experiment with urabated diligence and humility. As an instance of this disposition, we may quote part of a letter to the Abbé Soulavie upon a new theory of the earth, which he proposes and dismisses, without concern or anxiety, in the course of a few sentences; though, if the idea had fallen on the brain of an European philosopher, it might have germinated