was in hopes I would have complied with such request, but so it was that I had refused, &c. contrary to equity and good conscience, and to the manifest injury and oppression of him the complainant; and praying my lord chancellor that I might be obliged to discover how I came by the letters, what number of copies I had printed and sold, and to account with him for the profits, &c. &c." The gentleman himself must have known, that every circumstance of this was totally false; that of his brother's having delivered the letters to some other person for perusal, excepted. Those as little acquainted with law as I was, (who indeed never before had a law-suit of any kind) may wonder at this as much as I did; but I have now learnt that in chancery, though the defendant must swear to the truth of every point in his answer, the plaintiff is not put to his oath, or obliged to have the least regard to truth in his bill, but is allowed to lie as much as he pleases. I do not understand this, unless it be for the encouragement of bu siness.

My answer upon oath was, "That the letters in question were given to me, and came into my hands, as agent for the house of representatives of the province of Massachusetts Bay; that when given to me, I did not know to whom they had been addressed, no address appearing upon them; nor did I know before, that any such letters existed; that I had not been for many years concerned in printing; that I did not cause the letters to be printed, nor direct the doing it; that I did not crase any address that might have been on the letters; nor did I know that any other person had made such erasure; that I did, as agent to the province, transmit (as I apprehended it my duty to do) the said letters to one of the committee, with whom I had been directed to correspond, inasmuch as in my judgment they related to matters of great public importance to that province, and were put into my hands for that purpose; that I had never been applied to by the complainant, as asserted in his bill, and had made no profits of the letters, nor intended to make any, &c."

It was about this time become evident, that all thoughts of reconciliation with the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, by attention to their petitions and a redress of their grievances, was laid aside; that severity was resolved; and that the decrying and villifying the people of that country, and me their agent among the rest, was quite a court measure. It was the ton with all the ministerial folks to abuse them and me, in every company, and in every newspaper; and it was intimated to me as a thing settled, long before it happened, that the petition for removal of the governors was to be rejected, the assembly censured, and myself who had presented it, was to be punished by the loss of my place in the post office. For all this I was therefore prepared; but the attack from Mr. Whately was, I own, a surprise to me; under the abovementioned circumstances of obligation, and without the slightest provocation, I could not have imagined any man base enough to commence, of his own motion, such a vexatious suit against me. But a little accidental information served to throw some light upon the business: an acquaintances calling on me, after having just been at the treasury, showed me what he styled a pretty thing, for a friend of his; it was an order for one hundred and fifty pounds, payable to Dr. Samuel Johnson, said to be one half of his yearly pension, and drawn by the secretary of the treasury on this same Mr. Whately. I then considered him as a banker to the treasury for the pension money, and thence as having an interested connection with administration, that might induce him to act by direction of others in harasssing me with this suit; which gave me if possible a still meaner opinion of him, than if he had done it of his own accord.

What further steps he or his confederates, the ministers, will take in this cause, I know not: I do not believe the banker himself, finding there are no profits to be shared, would willingly lay out a sixpence more upon the suit; but then my finances are not sufficient to cope at law with the treasury

This was the late William Strahan, esq. M. P. and king's printer.

here; especially when administration has taken care to prevent my constituents of New England from paying me any salary, or reimbursing me any expenses, by a special instruction to the governor, not to sign any warrant for that purpose on the treasury there.

The injustice of thus depriving the people there of the use of their own money, to pay an agent acting in their defence, while the governor, with a large salary out of the money extorted from them by act of parliament, was enabled to pay plentifully Mauduit and Wedderburn to abuse and defame them and their agent, is so evident as to need no comment. But this they call GOVERNMENT!!

Here closes the tract, as written by Dr. Franklin.

It plainly appears by the foregoing lucid statement, and the faithful account of the unwarrantable proceedings before the lords of the privy council, now particularly referred to; that when Dr. Franklin, as agent for the province of Massachusetts Bay, presented the petition for removing the governor and lieutenant-governor, the ministry made the cause of those gentlemen their own; and Wedderburn, in defiance of the common law and custom of the realm, was ordered to change the object of the court; and, instead of entering into the merits of the question, to abuse a man who had offended them:

"Search earth, search hell, the devil could not find,

An agent like LOTHARIO, to his mind." Churchill.

This, like all atrocious proceedings, raised the indignation of the people, and a transient glow was seen in every countenance. In the first transports of it, even corruption and venality spoke the sentiments of virtue. Wedderburn was every where mentioned with detestation, which was doing him too much honor; a little troublesome genius, with words enough to be

See Vol. IV. p. 109 of this edition.

plausible, and cunning enough to be a tool, can never be an object for any thing but contempt. It was as generous in the public to be angry with him, as it would be in a child to detest a brick-bat or a stone, which had been made use of to injure its benefactor. Those who were somewhere behind the scenes, and who ordered the exhibitions which the ostensible people were only acting, were the proper objects of indignation; and if there had been virtue enough in the nation, they would have been dragged into light, and sacrificed to the liberties of the people.

Administration having at this time succeeded in their plans in the east, turned their views westward, where alone liberty seemed to have any refuge, and where therefore their principal efforts must be directed. The same art and the same chicane had been practised there; but it was not likely to be attended with the same success. America was not disposed to become, like the East Indies, an appendage to administration. It had raised itself into wealth by a kind industry, which produced virtues, of which administration had little or no conception; they therefore denominated them vices.

It was evident, that the contest with America was merely an affair of administration, with a view to increase the number of places at its disposal, and to facilitate the only method they knew of to govern the people. It will not be wondered at, therefore, that those persons who appeared in behalf of the Americans, should undergo all the rage and malice of administration. Dr. Franklin had been the most distinguished of those, and would long before have been sacrificed to their resentment, if he had not been protected by real integrity and by very superior talents. He was sent over to England to oppose the stamp act; and the virtuous and noble strain of all his answers at his examination before the house of commons, in February, 1776,8 seemed to reproach the times: they were like the sentiments of an Aristides, and they left deep impressions on the minds of men. For that very reason he was See vol. IV. p. 109, of this edition.

VOL. I.

Ll

watched, tried, and tempted. Cunning, allied even with power, cannot commit wickedness in a manly manner. At last, something like an occasion arose, and the whole wisdom of government was employed to make the most of it. Dr. Franklin had got into his possession the letters of governor Hutchinson and lieutenant-governor Oliver, in a manner which he has shown to have been very consistent with the highest honor and honesty. These letters, which Wedderburn called private and confidential ones, were used by public men to produce public measures. Dr. Franklin thought it his duty as an agent, to send them to Boston, to remove the misapprehensions of his friends there concerning all the motives of government, and to direct their resentment to its proper objects. A further use was made of the letters than he intended; and they produced the petition which he was ordered to present. The conduct of administration on the occasion was most extraor inary! The rulers of a great people might have been expected, even with any principles, to have had some regard to decency. The petition of a large and important province was going to be considered; administration thought fit to turn it into a pastime; they invited their friends in great numbers to partake of the entertainment. This serious business was converted into a bull-baiting; the noble creature was to be taken by surprise, to be secured from assistance, and to be yelped and bit at by a little noisy cur. This was proper matter of diversion for a solemn committee of the privy council, and a large audience of the wise and virtuous senators of the country!

But it served to amuse. The Boston petition had the appearance of a hearing; and some noise was made about virtue, and truth, and honor, in ill-grounded invectives against Dr. Franklin. That truly great and good man beheld the childish tricks with thorough contempt; resolved himself not to break in upon the proper decorum of public business; ad as he had not come there to squabble with Mr. Wedderbur and was not, like him, a wrangler by profession, he thoug it would be greatly letting himself down to take any note