from the treasury to export tea to America free of duty, you are before this time acquainted with. I much want to hear how that tea is received. If it is rejected, the act will undoubtedly be repealed: otherwise I suppose it will be continued; and when we have got into the use of the company's tea, and the foreign correspondences that supply us at present are broken off, the licences will be discontinued, and the act enforced.

I apprehend the better understanding that lately subsisted in our provincial administration will hardly be continued with the new governor; but you will soon see. I wish for the full letter you promise me by the next packet, which is now daily expected. With unalterable esteem and attachment, I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately,

DEAR SON,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO GOVERNOR FRANKLIN.

London, Nov. 3, 1773.

I wrote you pretty fully by the last packet, and having had no line from you of later date than the beginning of August, and little stirring here lately, I have now little to write.

In that letter* I mentioned my having written two papers, of which I preferred the first, but the public the last. It seems I was mistaken in judging of the public opinion; for the first† was reprinted some weeks after in the same paper, the printer giving for reason that he did it in compliance with the earnest request of many private persons, and some respectable societies; which is the more extraordinary, as it had been copied in several other papers, and in the * October 6, 1773.

+ Rules for reducing a great empire to a small one.

Gentleman's Magazine. Such papers may seem to have a tendency to increase our divisions, but I intend a contrary effect, and hope by comprising in little room, and setting in a strong light the grievances of the colonies, more attention will be paid to them by our administration, and that when their unreasonableness is generally seen, some of them will be removed, to the restoration of harmony between us.

SIR,

1

B. FRANKLIN.

TO THE HON. THOMAS CUSHING, ESQ.

London, January 5, 1774.

I waited on Lord Dartmouth on his return to town, and learnt that he had presented to his majesty our petition for the removal of the governors. No subsequent step had yet been taken upon it: but his lordship said, the king would probably refer the consideration of it to a committee of council, and that I should have notice to be heard in support of it. By the turn of his conversation, though he was not explicit, I apprehend the petition is not likely to be complied with: but we shall see. His lordship expressed, as usual, much concern at the differences subsisting, and wished they could be accommodated. Perhaps his good wishes are all that is in his power.

The famous letters* having unfortunately engaged Mr. Temple and Mr. Whately in a duel, which being interrupted would probably be renewed, I thought it incumbent on me to prevent, as far as I could, any farther mischief, by declaring publicly the part I had in the affair of those letters, and thereby, at the same time to rescue Mr. Temple's character from an undeserved and groundless imputation, that bore hard upon his honor, viz. that of taking the letters from Mr. Whately, and in breach of confidence. I did this with the more pleasure, as I believe him a sincere friend to our country. I am told by some that it was imprudent in me to avow the obtaining and sending those letters, for that administration will resent it. I have not much apprehension of this, but if it happens I must take the consequences. I only hope it will not affect any friend on your side the water, for I have never mentioned to whom they were transmitted.*

66

A letter of mine to you, printed in one of the Boston papers, has lately been reprinted here, to show, as the publisher expresses it, that I am one of the most determined enemies of the welfare and prosperity of Great Britain." In the opinion of some, every one who wishes the good of the whole empire may nevertheless be an enemy to the welfare of Great Britain, if he does not wish its good exclusively of every other part, and to see its welfare built on their servitude and wretchedness. Such an enemy I certainly am. But methinks 'tis wrong to print letters of mine at Boston which give occasion to these reflections.

I shall continue to do all I possibly can this winter towards an accommodation of our differences; but my hopes are small. Divine providence first infatuates the power it designs to ruin.

With the greatest esteem and respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.

* See Dr. Franklin's account of the whole of the transactions incident to these letters, in the Memoirs of his Life, Part III.

TO GOVERNOR FRANKLIN.

London, January 5, 1774.

DEAR SON, No insinuations of the kind you mention, concerning Mr. Gy have reached me, and if they had, it would have been without the least effect, as I have always had the strongest reliance on the steadiness of his friendship, and on the best grounds, the knowledge I have of his integrity, and the often repeated disinterested services he has rendered me. My return will interfere with nobody's interest or influence in public affairs, as my intention is to decline all interest in them, and every active part, except where it can serve a friend, and to content myself with communicating the knowledge of them my situation may have furnished me with, and be content with giving my advice for the public benefit, where it may be asked, or where I shall think it may be attended to: for being now about entering my sixty-ninth year, and having lived so great a part of my life to the public, it seems but fair that I should be allowed to live the small remainder to myself and to my friends.

If the honorable office you mention will be agreeable to him, I heartily wish it him. I only hope that, if offered to him, he will insist on its being not during pleasure, but quamdiu se bene gesserit.

Our friend Temple, as you will see by the papers, has been engaged in a duel about an affair in which he had no concern. As the combat was interrupted, and understood to be unfinished, I thought it incumbent on me to do what I could for preventing farther mischief, and so declared my having transmitted the letters in question. This has drawn some censure upon myself; but as I grow old, I grow less concerned about censure when I am satisfied that I act rightly, and I have the pleasure of having exculpated a friend who lay undeservedly under an imputation much to his dishonor.

I am now seriously preparing for my departure to America. I purpose sending my luggage, books, instruments, &c. by All, or Falconer, and take my passage to New York in one of the spring or summer packets, partly for settling some business with the Post-office there, and partly that I may see you on my way to Philadelphia, and learn thereby more perfectly the state of affairs. Your affectionate father, B. FRANKLIN.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

SIR,

The enclosed paper was written just before Lord Hillsborough quitted the American department. An expectation then prevailing, from the good character of the noble lord who succeeded him, that the grievances of the colonies would, under his administration, be redressed, it was laid aside; but as not a single measure of his predecessor has since been even attempted to be changed, and on the contrary new ones have been continually added further to exasperate, render them desperate, and drive them, if possible, into open rebellion, it may not be amiss now to give it the public, as it shows in detail the rise and progress of those differences which are about to break the empire in pieces.

SIR,

I am, sir, yours, &c.

A. P.

It is a bad temper of mind that takes a delight in opposition, and is ever ready to censure ministry