OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, LL.D. F.R.S. &c. MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 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, 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: |