no immediate call for the money, did themselves adopt the measure of placing it in the Stocks, which then were low; where it might on a peace produce a considerable profit, and in the mean time accumulate an interest: that they even passed a bill, directing the subsequent sums granted by Parliament, to be placed with the former: that the measure was prudent and safe; and that the loss arose, not from placing the money IN the Stocks, but from the imprudent and unnecessary DRAWING IT OUT at the very time when they were lowest, on some slight uncertain rumours of peace concluded: that if the Assembly had let it remain another year, instead of losing they would have gained six thousand pounds; and that after all, since the exchange at which they sold their Bills, was near twenty per cent. higher when they drew, than when the Stocks were purchased, the loss was far from being so great as you represent it. All these things you might have said, for they are, and you know them to be, part of the whole truth; but they would have spoiled your accusation. The late Speaker of your honourable House, Mr. Norris, who has, I suppose, all my letters to him, and copies of his own to me, relating to that transaction, can testify with how much integrity and clearness I managed the whole affair.-All the House were sensible of it, being from time to time fully acquainted with the facts. If I had gone to gaming in the Stocks with the public money, and through my fault a sum was lost, as your protest would insinuate, why was I not censured and punished for it when I returned? You, honourable Sir, (my enemy of seven years standing) was then in the House. You were appointed on the Committee for examining my accounts; you reported that you found them just, and signed that report.' I never solicited the employ of agent: 1 made no bargain for my future service, when 1 Report of the Committee on Benjamin Franklin's Accounts. "In obedience to the order of the House, we have examined the account of Benjamin Franklin, Esq. with the vouchers to us produced in support thereof, and do find the same account to be just, and that he has expended in the immediate service of this province, the sum of seven hundred and fourteen pounds, ten shillings and seven pence, out of the sum of fifteen hundred pounds sterling, to him remitted and paid, exclusive of any allowance or charge for his support and services for the province. February 19, 1763. JOHN MORTON, JOSEPH FOX, "The House taking the foregoing Report of the Committee of Accounts into consideration, and having some time debated thereon, "Resolved, "That the sum of five hundred pounds sterling per annum be allowed and given to Benjamin Franklin, Esq. late agent for the province of Pennsylvania at the Court of Great Britain, during his absence of six years from his business and connections, in the service of the public; and that the thanks of this House be also given to the said Gentleman by Mr. Speaker, from the Chair, as well for the faithful discharge of his duty to this province in particular, as for the many and important services done to America in general, during his residence in Great Britain. I was ordered to England by the Assembly; nor did they vote me any salary. I lived there near six years at my own expense, and I made no charge or demand when I came home. You, Sir, of all others, was the very member that proposed (for the honor and justice of the House) a compensation to be made me of the five thousand pounds you mention. Was it with an intent to reproach me thus publicly for accepting it? I thanked the House for it then, and I thank you now for proposing it: though you, who have lived in England, can easily conceive, that besides the prejudice to my private affairs by my absence, a thousand pounds more would not have reimbursed me. The money voted was immediately paid me, But, if I had occasioned the loss of six thousand pounds to the province, here was a fair opportunity of securing easily the greatest part of it; why was not the five thousand pounds deducted, and the remainder called for?—The reason is, this accusation was not then invented.—Permit me to add, that supposing the whole eleven thousand pounds an expense occasioned by my voyage to England, yet the taxation of the proprietary estate now established, will, when valued by years purchase, be found in time an advantage to the public, far exceeding that expense. And if the expense is at present a burthen, the odium of it ought to lie on those who, by their injustice, made the voyage necessary, and not on me, who only submitted to the orders of the House, in undertaking it. I am now to take leave (perhaps a last leave) of the country I love, and in which I have spent the greatest part of my life.-ESTO PERPETUA.—I wish every kind of prosperity to my friends, -and I forgive my enemies. Philadelphia, Nov. 5, 1764. B. FRANKLIN. "Thursday, March 31, 1763. “Pursuant to a Resolve of the nineteenth of last month, that the thanks of this House be given to Benjamin Franklin, Esq. for his many services not only to the province of Pennsylvania, but to America in general, during his late agency at the Court of Great Britain, the same were this day accordingly given in form from the Chair. To which Mr. Franklin, respectfully addressing himself to the Speaker, made answer, That he was thankful to the House for the very handsome and generous allowance they had been pleased to make him for his services; but that the approbation of this House was, in his estimation, far above every other kind of recompence." Votes, 1763. The Examination of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, [before the English House of Commons, in February, 1766,] relative to the Repeal of the American Stamp Act. [Referred to, page 169 of MEMOIRS.] Q. WHAT is your name, and place of abode? A. Franklin, of Philadelphia. Q. Do the Americans pay any considerable taxes among themselves? A. Certainly many, and very heavy taxes. Q. What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania, laid by the laws of the colony? A. There are taxes on all estates, real and personal: a poll tax; a tax on all offices, professions, trades, and businesses, according to their profits; an excise on all wine, rum, and other spirits; and a duty of ten pounds per head on all negroes imported; with some other duties. Q. For what purposes are those taxes laid? A. For the support of the civil and military establishments of the country, and to discharge the heavy debt contracted in the last war. Q. How long are those taxes toɔ continue ? A. Those for discharging the debt are to continue till 1772, and longer, if the debt should not be then all discharged. The others must always continue. Q. Was it not expected that the debt would have been sooner discharged? A. It was, when the peace was made with France and Spain. But a fresh war breaking out with the Indians, a fresh load of debt was incurred; and the taxes, of course, continued longer by a new law. Q. Are not all the people very able to pay those taxes? A. No. The frontier counties, all along the continent, having been frequently ravaged by the enemy, and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. And therefore, in consideration of their distresses, our late tax-laws do expressly favour those counties, excusing the sufferers; and I suppose the same is done in other governments. Q. Are not you concerned in the management of the post-office in America? A. Yes. I am Deputy Post-Master General of North America. 'Erroneously numbered 7, in Memoirs. Q. Don't you think the distribution of stamps, by post, to all the inhabitants, very practicable, if there was no opposition? A. The posts only go along the sea-coasts; they do not, except in a few instances, go back into the country; and if they did, sending for stamps by post would occasion an expence of postage, amounting, in many cases, to much more than that of the stamps themselves. Q. Are you acquainted with Newfoundland? A. I never was there. Q. Do you know whether there are any post-roads on that island? A. I have heard there are no roads at all; but that the communication between one settlement and another is by sea only. Q. Can you disperse the stamps by post in Canada? A. There is only a post between Montreal and Quebec. The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other, in that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among them, and therefore they cannot get stamps per post. The English colonies too, along the frontiers, are very thinly settled. Q. From the thinness of the back settlements, would not the Stamp Act be extremely inconvenient to the inhabitants if executed? A. To be sure it would; as many of the inhabitants could not get stamps when they had occasion for them, without taking long journeys, and spending perhaps three or four pounds, that the crown might get sixpence. Q. Are not the colonies, from their circumstances, very able to pay the stamp duty. A. In my opinion, there is not gold and silver enough in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year.' Q. Don't you know that the money arising from the stamps was all to be laid out in America? A. I know it is appropriated by the act to the American service; but it will be spent in the conquered colonies, where the soldiers are, not in the colonies that pay it. Q. Is there not a balance of trade due from the colonies where the troops are posted, that will bring back the money to the old colonies? A. I think not. I believe very little would come back. I know of no trade likely to bring 'The Stamp Act says, 'that the Americans shall have no commerce, make no exchange of property with each other; neither purchase, nor grant, nor recover debts; they shall neither marry nor make their wills, unless they pay such and such sums in specie for the stamps which must give validity to the proceedings. The operation of such a tax, had it obtained the consent of the people, appeared inevitable; and its annual productiveness was estimated by its proposer in the House of Commons, at the committee for supplies, at 100,000l. sterling. The colonies being already reduced to the necessity of having papermoney, by sending to Britain the specie they collected in foreign trade, in order to make up for the deficiency of their other returns for Britain's manufactures, there were doubts where could remain the specie sufficient to answer the tax. it back. I think it would come from the colonies where it was spent, directly to England; for I have always observed, that in every colony the more plenty the means of remittance to England, the more goods are sent for, and the more trade with England carried on. Q. What number of white inhabitants do you think there are in Pennsylvania?" A. I suppose there may be about one hundred and sixty thousand. Q. What number of them are Quakers? A. Perhaps a third. Q. What number of Germans? A. Perhaps another third; but I cannot speak with certainty. Q. Have any number of the Germans seen service, as soldiers, in Europe? A. Yes, many of them, both in Europe and America. Q. Are they as much dissatisfied with the stamp duty as the English? A. Yes, and more; and with reason, as their stamps are, in inany cases, to be double?' Q. How many white men do you suppose there are in North America? A. About three hundred thousand, from sixteen to sixty years of age.2 Q. What may be the amount of one year's imports into Pennsylvania from Britain? A. I have been informed that our merchants compute the imports from Britain to be above 500,000l. Q. What may be the amount of the produce of your province exported to Britain? A. It must be small, as we produce little that is wanted in Britain. I suppose it cannot exceed 40,000l. Q. How then do you pay the balance? A. The balance is paid by our produce carried to the West Indies, (and sold in our own islands, or to the French, Spaniards, Danes, and Dutch;) by the same being carried to other colonies in North America, (as to New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Carolina, and Georgia; and by the same, carried to different parts of Europe, (as Spain, Portugal, and Italy.) In all which places we receive either money, bills of exchange, or commodities that suit for remittance to Britain; which, together with all the profits on the industry of our merchants and [The Stamp Act provides, that a double duty should be laid where the instrument, proceedings, &c. shall be engrossed, written, or printed, within the said colonies and plantations, in any other than the English language.' This measure appeared to be suggested by motives of convenience, and the policy of assimilating persons of foreign to those of British descent, and preventing their interference in the conduct of law business till this change should be effected. It seems, however, to have been deemed too precipitate, immediately to extend this clause to newly-conquered countries. An exemption, therefore, was granted, in this particular, with respect to Canada and Grenada, for the space of five years, to be reckoned from the commencement of the duty. (See the Stamp Act.)] 2 [Strangers excluded, some parts of the northern colonies double their numbers in fifteen or sixteen years; to the southward they are longer; but, taking one with another, they have doubled, by natural generation only, once in twenty-five years. Pennsylvania, it is said, including strangers, has doubled in about sixteen years.] |