I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your most obedient, &c. B. FRANKLIN, Minister Plenipotentiary from the Congress of the At Passy, near Paris, this 10th day of March, 1779. Dr. Franklin to George Whatley, Esq., Treasurer of the Foundling Hospital, London. Passy, near Paris, Aug. 21, 1784. MY DEAR OLD FRIEND, I RECEIVED your kind letter of May 3, 1783. I am ashamed that it has been so long unanswered. The indolence of old age, frequent indisposition, and too much business, are my only excuses. had great pleasure in reading it, as it informed me of your welfare. I Your excellent little work, "The Principles of Trade," is too little known. I wish you would send me a copy of it by the bearer, my grandson and secretary, whom I beg leave to recommend to your civilities. I would get it translated and printed here; and, if your bookseller has any quantity of them left, I should be glad he would send them to America. The ideas of our people there, though rather better than those that prevail in Europe, are not so good as they should be: and that piece might be of service among them. Since, and soon after the date of your letter, we lost, unaccountably, as well as unfortunately, that worthy, valuable young man you mention, your namesake Maddeson. He was infinitely regretted by all that knew him. I am sorry your favourite charity does not go on as you could wish it. It is shrunk, indeed, by your admitting only sixty children in a year. What you have told your brethren respecting America is true. If you find it difficult to dispose of your children in England, it looks as if you had too many people. And yet you are afraid of emigration. A subscription is lately set on foot here to encourage and assist mothers in nursing their infants themselves at home; the practice of sending them to the Enfans Trouves having risen here to a monstrous excess, as by the annual bills it appears they amount to near one third of the children born in Paris. This subscription is likely to succeed, and may do a great deal of good, though it cannot answer all the purposes of a foundling hospital. Your eyes must continue very good, since you are able to write so small a hand without spectacles. I cannot distinguish a letter, even of large print; but am happy in the invention of double spectacles, which, serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful to me as ever they were. If all the other defects and infirmities of old age could be as easily and cheaply remedied, it would be worth while, my friend, to live a good deal longer. But I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitutions as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.-Adieu; and believe me, ever, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. Dr. Franklin to George Whatley, Esq. DEAR OLD FRIEND, Passy, May 19, 1785. I RECEIVED the very good letter you sent me by my grandson, together with your resemblance, which is placed in my chamber, and gives me great pleasure. There is no trade, they say, without returns; and therefore I am punctual in making those you have ordered. I intended this should have been a long epistle; but I am interrupted, and can only add, that I am, ever, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. My grandson presents his most affectionate respects. Lady Russel to Dr. Fitzwilliam. Woborne Abbey, April 20, 1784. BELIEVE me, good doctor, I find myself uneasy at reading your short letter of the eighth of April, before I had answered yours of the eleventh of March. I have several times taken a pen in my hand to do it, and I have been prevented by dispatching less pleasing business first; and so my time was spent before I came to that which I intended to perform before I laid away the pen. The future part of my life will not, I expect, pass as I would choose. Sense has been long enough gratified; indeed so long, that I know not how to live by faith: yet the pleasant stream that fed it near fourteen years together, being gone, I have no sort of refreshment, but when I can repair to that living Fountain whence all comfort flows. I am undone, irrecoverably so as to my temporal desires and concerns. Time runs on; and usually wears off some of that sharpness of thought inseparable from my circumstances: but I cannot experience such an effect, every week making me more and more sensible of the miserable change in my condition. But the same merciful Hand which has held me up from sinking in extreme calamities, will, I verily believe, do so still, that I faint not to the end in this sharp conflict, nor, by discontent, add sin to my grievous weight of sorrows. You observe, I doubt not, that I let my pen run too eagerly upon this subject: indeed it is very hard for me to restrain it; especially when I am writing to those who pity my distress, and would afford me relief any way in their power. I am glad I have so expressed myself to you, as to induce you to continue the course you have begun with me, by setting before me plainly my duty of every kind. I entertain some thoughts of going for a few days to that now desolate Stratton, where I must expect new and sorrowful reflections at the first, it being a place where I have lived in sweet and full content; considered the condition of others, and thought none deserved my envy: but I must pass no more such days on earth. However, places are indeed nothing: where can I dwell that this figure is not present to me? Nor would I have it otherwise: so I resolve that shall be no bar to the acquitting of any obligation upon me. The immediate one, is the settling, and indeed the giving up of the trust which my dear lord had from my sisFain would I see that performed, as I know he would have done it had he lived. If I find I can do as I desire, I will, by God's permission, infallibly go, but not to stay more than two or three ter. weeks: : my children will remain here, who shall ever have my diligent attendance; therefore I shall hasten back to them. I take, if I do go, my sister Margaret; and I believe lady Shaftsbury will meet me at Stratton. This I choose, as thinking that persons being there, to whom I must observe some rules, I shall be induced to restrain myself, and to keep in better bounds my wild and sad thoughts.-Blessed be the good prayers of others for me; they will, I hope, help me forward towards the great end of our creation. I am most cordially, good doctor, But ever faithful friend, RACHEL RUSSEL. Lady Russel to Dr. Fitzwilliam. Woborne Abbey, Oct. 11, 1785. Now I know where to find you, good doctor, (which I do by your letters written at my cousin Spencer's) you will be sure to hear from me, who am not ashamed to be on the receiving hand with you. What am I that I should say, why is it not otherwise? No, I do not; nor do I grudge or envy you the pious and ingenuous pleasure you have in it. My part in this world is of another nature. I thank you, sir,(God must give you the recompense,) you instruct me admirably how to overcome, and to make the application from Rev. iii. 12. The great thing is to acquiesce with all one's heart in the good pleasure of God, who will prove us by the ways and dispensations which he sees best. Who can tell his works from the beginning to the |