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my silence; for my friend monsieur Le Roy, of the royal academy of sciences, took up my cause and refuted him: my book was translated into the Italian, German, and Latin languages; and the doctrine it contained was by degrees ge nerally adopted by the philosophers of Europe, in preference to that of the Abbé; so that he lived to see himself the last of his sect; except monsieur B of Paris, his eléve and immediate disciple.

What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity, was the success of one of its proposed experiments, made by messieurs Dalibard and Delor, at Marly; for drawing lightning from the clouds. This engaged the public attention every where. Monsieur Delor who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and lectured in that branch of science, undertook to repeat, what he called the Philadelphia experi ments; and after they were performed before the king and court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I will not swell this narrative with an account of that capital experi ment, nor of the infinite pleasure I received in the success of a similar one I made soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be found in the histories of electricity. Dr. Wright an English physician, when at Paris, wrote to a friend who was of the royal society, an account of the high esteem my experiments were in among the learned abroad, and of their wonder that my writings had been so little noticed in England. The society on this resumed the conside ration of the letters that had been read to them; and the celebrated Dr. Watson drew up a summary account of them, and of all I had afterwards sent to England on the subject; which he accompanied with some praise of the writer. This summary was then printed in their transactions: and some members of the society in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. Canton, having verified the experiment of procuring lightning from the clouds by a pointed rod, and acquainted them with the success; they soon made me more than amends for the slight with which they had before treated me. Without my having made any application for that honor,

they chose me a member; and voted that I should be excused the customary payments, which would have amounted to twenty-five guineas; and ever since have given me their transactions gratis. They also presented me with the gold medal of sir Godfrey Copley, for the year 1753, the delivery of which was accompanied by a very handsome speech of the president, lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly honored.

2

Dr. Franklin gives a further account of his election, in the following extract of a letter to his son governor Franklin,

London, Dec. 19, 1767. "We have had an ugly affair at the Royal society lately. One Dacosta, a Jew, who, as our clerk, was entrusted with collecting our monies, has been so unfaithful as to embezzle near thirteen hundred pounds in four years. Being one of the council this year as well as the last, I have been employed all the last week in attending the inquiry into and unravelling his accounts, in order to come at a full knowledge of his frauds. His securities are bound in one thousand pounds to the society, which they will pay, but we are like to lose the rest. He had this year received twenty-six admission payments of twenty-five guincas each, which he did not bring to account.

While attending this affair, I had an opportunity of looking over the old council books and journals of the society, and having a curiosity to see how I came in, (of which I had never been informed,) I looked back for the minutes relating to it. You must know it is not usual to admit persons that have not requested to be admitted; and a recommendatory certificate in favor of the candidate, signed by at least three of the members, is by our rule to be presented to the society, expressing that he is desirous of that honor, and is so and so qualified. As I had never asked or expected the honor, I was, as I said before, curious to see how the business was managed. I found that the certificate, worded very advantageously for me, was signed by lord Macclesfield, then president, lord Parker, and lord Willoughby, that the election was by an unanimous vote; and the honor being voluntarily conferred by the society unsolicited by me, it was thought wrong to demand or receive the usual fees or composition; so that my name was entered on the list with a vote of council, that I was not to pay any thing. And accordingly nothing has ever been demanded of me Those who are admitted in the common way, pay five guineas admission fees, and two guineas and a half yearly contribution, or twenty-five guineas down, in lieu of it. In my case a substantial favor accompanied the honor.

Our new governor, captain Denny, brought over for me the beforementioned medal from the Royal society, which he presented to me at an entertainment given him by the city. He accompanied it with very polite expressions of his esteem for me, having as he said been long acquainted with my character. After dinner when the company as was customary at that time, were engaged in drinking, he took me aside into another room, and acquainted me that he had been advised by his friends in England to cultivate friendship with me, as one who was capable of giving him the best advice, and of contributing most effectually to the making his administration easy. That he therefore desired of all things to have a good understanding with me, and he begged me to be assured of his readiness on all occasions to render me every service that might be in his power. He said much to me also of the proprietors' good disposition towards the province, and of the advantage it would be to us all, and to me in particular, if the opposition that had been so long continued to his measures was dropt, and harmony restored between him and the people; in effecting which it was thought no one could be more serviceable than myself; and I might depend on adequate acknowlegments and recompenses, &c. The drinkers finding we did not return immediately to the table, sent us a decanter of Madeira, which the governor made liberal use of, and in proportion became more profuse of his solicitations and promises. My answers were to this purpose; that my circumstances, thanks to God, were such as to make proprietary favors unnecessary to me; and that being a member of the assembly I could not possibly accept of any; that however I had no personal enmity to the proprietary, and that whenever the public measures he proposed, should appear to be for the good of the people, no one would espouse and forward them more zealously than myself; my past opposition had been founded on this, that the measures which having been urged were evidently intended to serve the proprietary interest with great prejudice to that of the people. That I was much obliged to him (the governor) for his profession of regard

to me, and that he might rely on every thing in my power to render his administration as easy to him as possible, hoping at the same time that he had not brought with him the same unfortunate instructions his predecessors, had been hampered with. On this he did not then explain himself, but when he afterwards came to do business with the assembly, they appeared again, the disputes were renewed, and I was as active as ever in the opposition, being the penman, first of the request to have a communication of the instructions, and then of the remarks upon them, which may be found in the Votes of the Times, and in the HISTORICAL REVIEW I afterwards published; but between us personally no enmity arose, we were often together; he was a man of letters, had seen much of the world, and was entertaining and pleasing in conversation. He gave me information that my old friend Ralph, was still alive, that he was esteemed one of the best political writers in England; had been employed in the dispute between prince Frederick, and the king, and had obtained a pension of three hundred pounds a-year; that his reputation was indeed small as a poet, Pope having damned his poetry in the Dunciad; but his prose was thought as good as any man's.

The assembly finally finding the proprietary obstinately persisted in shackling the deputies with instructions, inconsistent not only with the privileges of the people, but with the service of the crown, resolved to petition the king against them, and appointed me their agent to go over to England, to present and support the petition. The house had sent up a bill to the governor, granting a sum of sixty thousand pounds for the king's use, (ten thousand pounds of which was subjected to the orders of the then general, lord Loudon,) which the governor, in compliance with his instructions absolutely refused to pass. I had agreed with captain Morris, of the packet at New York, for my passage, and my stores were put on board; when lord Loudon, arrived at Philadelphia, expressly as he told me, to endeavor an accommodation be

* See Vol. II. of this edition.

tween the governor and assembly, that his majesty's ser vice might not be obstructed by their dissentions. Accordingly he desired the governor and myself to meet him, that he might hear what was to be said on both sides. We met and discussed the business: in behalf of the assembly, I urged the various arguments that may be found in the public papers of that time, which were of my writing, and are printed with the minutes of the assembly; and the governor pleaded his instructions, the bond he had given to observe them, and his ruin if he disobeyed; yet seemed not unwilling to hazard himself if lord Loudon would advise it. This his lordship did not chuse to do, though I once thought I had nearly prevailed with him to do it; but finally he rather chose to urge the compliance of the assembly; and he intreated me to use my endeavors with them for that purpose, declaring that he would spare none of the king's troops for the defence of our frontiers, and that if we did not continue to provide for that defence ourselves, they must remain exposed to the enemy. I acquainted the house with what had passed, and presenting them with a set of resolutions I had drawn up, declaring our rights, that we did not relinquish our claim to those rights, but only suspended the exercise of them on this occasion, through force, against which we protested; they at length agreed to drop that bill, and frame another conformably to the proprietary instructions; this of course the governor passed, and I was then at liberty to proceed on my voyage. But in the mean time the packet had sailed with my sea stores, which was some loss to me, and my only recompense was his lordship's thanks for my service; all the credit of obtaining the accommodation falling to his share.

He set out for New York before me; and as the time for dispatching the packet boats was in his disposition, and there were two then remaining there, one of which, he said was to sail very soon, I requested to know the precise time, that I might not miss her, by any delay of mine. The answer was, "I have given out that she is to sail on Saturday next, but I may let you know, entre nous, that if you are there by

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