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city, the Perruquiers were at that time a privileged corporation, and it was the policy of the time to preserve their privileges, rather than have to pay an immense number of pensions, if their privileges were taken away. Franklin, speaking to Turgot on the financial point, observed: "You have in France an excellent source of revenue, may recruit your army at the same time, and it will cost you nothing; let the public refrain from frizzing and powdering their hair; the money saved will be preferable to a tax, and enable the people to pay those that are indispensable; then the Perruquiers, being without a vocation, may be embodied in a military corps, the wages of hair-dressing will be saved, and the hair-powder will be converted into provisions."

In the memoirs written by himself, we find his mind was very early disengaged from the prevailing superstitions of the day. Among the works which fell under his eye, while employed as a printer at Palmer's, in London, was Wollaston's Sketch of the Religion of Nature; and this work it was which led him to try his own mind by a severe and unbiassed scrutiny; in consequence, he composed a short Essay on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. Of this tract no traces are to be found, though the tenor and title of the work may be very easily conceived upon a review of his moral writings, and especially the notes which he was accustomed to commit in a rough, hasty form, as if in haste, lest they should escape him; of these first thoughts and rude sketches, we have several sheets before us, and among which is the first sketch of an essay on Providence, and the original draft of the first letter which appears in the epistolary correspondence of this edition, which was never before published. If it were practicable to presen a fac simile, it would afford an example of the mode in which a few first rough thoughts may be enlarged by correlative ideas, and by progressive improvements reduced into a complete whole.

Time has done some justice, but not as ample as is due, to the character and services of Franklin. While his reputation spread among civilized nations, and his wisdom and sound discretion contributed, above all other men, to the consummation of his country's character and independence; it is melancholy to have to say, that his merits excited the envy, and often the malice, of men associated with him in the common cause. He had at one period to maintain the credit of his country at the court of Versailles, when some of his colleagues were wantonly intruding individual views on the attention of the court; at the same time he was traduced by a private correspondence with members of Congress, the substance of which found its way into debate, and formed fuel for faction: on two occasions he had deemed it necessary to signify his desire of retiring from his station at Versailles, as, being the object of a constant jealousy, he felt pernicious counteraction of his best efforts; but the good sense of a few wise and able men, such as Charles Thompson, soon counteracted those designs against him in Congress, and the Count de Vergennes, by formally declaring that he could not hold correspondence with more than one plenipotentiary from the United States, put an end to the difficulties which had been thrown in the way of the public interest. A public agent of the south at this period charged Dr. Franklin with being a Yankee!!—another of the north represented the Americans at Paris as satellites revolving round the planet Franklin !—and among the accusations which for a long time carried the greatest force was, that he obeyed the orders of Congress implicitly.

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One of his colleagues at Paris, a few years ago, reviewing the transactions of that period, in which it was not easy to overlook Franklin, speaks of him in the following article, which, being an effusion conceived in a temper splenetic and resentful, affords, perhaps, the best eulogy that has been offered to the public on his character. It was published in the Boston Patriot.

"Mr. Jefferson has said, that Dr. Franklin was an honour to human nature. And so indeed he was. To all the talents and qualities for the foundation of a great and lasting character, which were held up to the view of the whole world by the University of Oxford, the Royal Society of London, and the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, were added, it is believed, more artificial modes of distinguishing, celebrating, and exaggerating his reputation, than were ever before or since practised in favour of any individual.

"His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederic the Great or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed than any or all of them.

"Newton had astonished, perhaps, forty or fifty men in Europe; for not more than that number, probably, at any one time had read him and understood him, by his discoveries and demonstrations; and these being held in admiration in their respective countries, at the head of the philosophers, had spread among scientific people a mysterious wonder at the genius of this, perhaps, the greatest man that ever lived. But his fame was confined to men of letters. The common people knew little, and cared nothing, about such a recluse philosopher. Leibnitz's name was still more confined. Frederic was hated by one half of Europe, as much as Louis XIV. was, and as Napoleon is. Voltaire, whose name was more universal than any of those before mentioned, was considered as a vain profligate wit, and not much esteemed or beloved by anybody, though admired by all who knew his works.

"But Franklin's fame was universal. His name was familiar to government and people; to kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as well as plebeians, to such a degree, that there was scarcely a peasant or a citizen, a valet de chambre, coachman, or footman, a lady's chambermaid, or a scullion in the kitchen, who was not familiar with his name, and who did not consider him as a friend of human kind. When they spoke of him, they seemed to think he was to restore the golden age. They seemed enraptured enough to exclaim,

Aspice venturo lætentus ut omnia seculo.

"To develope that complication of causes which conspired to produce so singular a phenomenon, is far beyond my means or forces. Perhaps it can never be done without a complete history of the philosophy and politics of the eighteenth century. Such a work would be one of the most important that ever was written; much more interesting to this and future ages, than the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' splendid and useful as it is. La Harpe promised a history of the philosophy of the eighteenth century; but he died, and left us only a few fragments. Four of the finest writers that Great Britain ever produced, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, Hume, and Gibbon, whose labours were translated into all languages, and three of the most elegant writers that ever lived in France, whose works were also translated into all languages, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Raynal,-were professed ad

mirers of Mr. Franklin. He was considered as a citizen of the world, a friend to all men, and an enemy to none. His rigorous taciturnity was very favourable to this singular felicity. He conversed only with individuals, and freely only with confidential friends. In company he was totally silent."

This sketch, drawn by one of his colleagues at Paris, is remarkable for the force of its reluctant acknowledgments, and the preposterous effort to account, in a supernatural, or artificial, or some mysterious way, for his celebrity, and the indiscriminate attachment and praise lavished on him by every condition in human society. There would not seem to be a necessity for any other than the simple and obvious causes of this celebrity; he who was "an ornament of human nature," "as indeed he was." One "who possessed all the talents and qualities for the foundation of a great and lasting character," would seem to require no "artificial modes of diffusing, and celebrating his reputation." That it was exaggerated, is in no instance shown; yet the author of the sketch insinuates that “artificial modes were practised, such as were never known before." Who practised them? Franklin never published nor profited by any of his writings, philosophical or political; on the former he seems to have set very little value, and the latter were more profitable to his country than to his purse. The cause is solved by the words of the reluctant eulogist," He was considered a citizen of the world, a friend of all men, and an enemy to none." This is the key of this artificial mystery.

It is due to truth not to withhold the fact, that his distinguished labours for his country were not regarded with the justice due by that country to his services. Very soon after his return from that splendid mission, of which he was the animating soul and the superintending intelligence, he experienced that often repeated and too often verified imputation of ingratitude in republics. During the contest, his all-effective influence regulated and drew forth the resources which formed the only treasury of the revolution. That influence blunted the venom of envy; but peace restored, it burst forth with an acrimony which, had not the venerable Charles Thomson consigned his journal to the flames in a moment of mistaken liberality, would have surprised and confounded posterity. The long concealed spirit of jealousy, and the discretion which had silenced the enemies of the revolution, and encouraged hopes of the royal cause even to the moment when peace was proclaimed, now changed its passivity for action, and singled out the patriarch of independence as the object of their vengeance. In monarchies, gratitude is never expected, and the disregard of services is genial to selfish institutions. It becomes the more odious, and the more remarkable, when it appears in the last position of human society where it should not be suffered or tolerated.

The following is an abstract of a summary of his services, which was offered to the notice of Congress by a friend. In England he combatted the stamp act by his public writings, and in his two celebrated examinations before parliament and in the privy council, which it was allowed led to the repeal of that act.

He opposed the duty act, and though he could not prevent its passing, it was modified, at this instance, by the omission of salt, and other articles.

He wrote and published numerous papers in refutation of the ministerial principles of taxation, and their writers; he conducted two secret negotiations for

the repeal, and offered payment for the tea destroyed at Boston, in the event of their repeal.

He rendered himself obnoxious by his zeal for his country, for which he was insulted before the privy council, and dismissed from the direction of the post office, estimated at 7500 dollars a year.

He was

The king's governors were ordered not to sign any warrant for his salaries. Returning home, he devoted himself to the cause of independence. chairman of the committee of safety, and invented the chevaux de frize for the defence of the Delaware.

He, in 1775, associated with Messrs. Hanson and Lynch, at the head-quarters near Boston, arranged the affairs of the union between the northern states and general Washington.

In spring, 1776, he was associated with Messrs. Carrol and Chew in a mission to Canada; the same year he was appointed to France; put all the money he possessed into the hands of Congress (about $3000), and sailed for France, in the midst of war and danger, in the 70th year of his age.

He made no bargain for salary, or appointments, but was told he should have $2500 a year, his expenses paid, and to be assisted by a secretary.

When, in 1764, Pennsylvania sent him to England on the same salary, they allowed him a year's advance for the expenses of his passage. He had no allowance from Congress, was badly accommodated in a vessel, not fit for the northern seas, and which foundered on her return.

He served as commissioner and plenipotentiary at the court of France; and performed services which were not probably duties of his station. No secretary being sent, the business was executed partly before the commissioners left him, and entirely after by himself, with the aid of his grandson, who was allowed never exceeding three hundred pounds a year.

He served as consul for several years; and as special judge in admiralty causes; and issued commissions to privateers, of which the Black Prince alone captured in one year seventy-five sail.

He served as commissary of purchases, receiving and paying bills of exchange, amounting to 2,500,000 livres.

In a letter of Silas Dean to colonel Wm. Duer, of New York, he thus notices the services of Franklin :-" Congress drew bills of exchange upon president Laurens, in Holland, several months before he left America; they drew on Mr. Jay, long before his arrival in Spain; all of which bills were honoured by the doctor. You in America believed that this was done with money received from Spain and Holland; not at all; the drafts were constantly sent to Franklin to be discharged; even the salaries of Mr. Jay, and Mr. Adams, and their suites, were paid by the doctor out of funds which his address obtained from the treasury of France. The agents of particular states were provided with large sums in the same way, out of funds ostensibly obtained for the subsistence of the army. Our ambassadors and agents have cost us, for some time, at least twenty thousand pounds sterling each year; the redemption of prisoners as much more. Congress was several times requested by the doctor not to draw on him for more, but they always continued to draw, often without notice, and were always paid."

It is true, that by his fellow-citizens of Pennsylvania, he was received on his return with gratulations, and they conferred on him the highest trusts they could bestow. It has been before noticed, that, by the editor of the edition of 1779 it was said, "the times appear not ripe enough to give expression to the veneration due to Franklin ;" and even now, in the fifty-seventh year of American independence, that justice remains to be suitably done. The secret enmities which were directed against him during the whole time of his eventful mission at Paris have been snatched from the indignation of the history, by the consignment of the private papers of the venerable Charles Thomson to the flames; an error having its motive in virtue, but certainly operating as a denial of positive as well as of retributive justice. Charles Thomson, being rebuked in terms of affection and respect for this sacrifice, excused himself to the writer by expressions to this effect: "The reputation and the actions of Dr. Franklin required no other vindication than the independence of his country; during the whole period of his services at home and abroad, no person knew them better than myself; as to his enemies, it is an act of charity to future generations that they should be consigned to oblivion, were it only to leave the revolution unblemished by their exposure. Men who have held their heads very high would otherwise not appear to very great advantage."

Though honoured in his favourite city and state, Congress never made that remuneration which he had a right to expect; and it will at some day not remote be inquired by the faithful historian, to what causes it should be ascribed that even in his latter years, and after his demise, his descendants should have been proscribed in the very city which he and they had so much honoured and adorned. After the foundation of the federal government, there appeared a manifest tendency to proscribe him and others, who had been eminently conspicuous in the cause of independence; and this spirit extended to the institutions of which he was the author, which deserve some brief remarks here.

There had existed in Pennsylvania a law called the test act, which was intended to counteract the private intrigues and the undisguised hostility which was manifested by the adversaries of the revolution who had not emigrated. The moderation of the people forbade any molestation on account of opinion, and many who were, from education or other causes, partial to the royal cause remained in perfect security while they refrained from actual interference with the cause of liberty. In the moment of the triumphant establishment of independence, the generosity of the friends of liberty held forth an amnesty, and opened to those who had been opposed to the national independence the common rights of freemen. None was more earnest or effectively active in the repeal of the test law than Franklin. With an ingratitude that is unhappily too frequent, the power and influence which had been so long repressed by a perfidious discretion, soon displayed itself; and thenceforward exhibited a character, which never ceased till the generation had nearly passed away, of hostility to the principles of freedom. The repeal of the test law forms a salient point in the politics of the period, which affected all public measures. Those who were thus liberally treated identified themselves with every measure hostile to liberal principles, and became an active and propelling power in one of the parties which grew up on the formation of the federal government. The artifices and the malignity of this class of ungrateful men, gave much of their grossness to party spirit, in the first twelve years of the federal government, and

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