OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

LL.D. F.R.S. &c.

MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, AND FOR THE TREATY OF PEACE
AND INDEPENDENCE WITH GREAT BRITAIN, &c. &c.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF TO A LATE PERIOD,

AND CONTINUED TO THE TIME OF HIS DEATH

BY HIS GRANDSON,

WILLIAM TEMPLE FRANKLIN.

COMPRISING THE

PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE

And Public Negociations of Dr. Franklin;

AND HIS SELECT

POLITICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS,
PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS.

NEW EDITION.

IN SIX VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

CORRESPONDENCE.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED FOR HENRY COLBURN,

BY R. BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1833.

PREFACE

TO

THE FIRST EDITION

OF THE

PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.

FAMILIAR letters have been usually considered as exhibiting a portraiture of the human mind; and though perhaps they are not always to be so regarded, especially in the intercourse of public men upon subjects involving particular interests and questions of national policy; yet even from these documents the most valuable materials of history are drawn, and the secret springs of great events are disclosed. Hence it is, that a deserved importance has ever been attached to the correspondence of persons who have figured with distinction in political revolutions, and the foundation of new states: