no bargain for my future service, when I was ordered to England by the assembly; nor did they vote me any salary. I

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.

"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 connexions, 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.

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"Thursday, March 21, 1763. "Pursuant to a resolve of the nineteenth of last month, that the thanks of this house be given to Benjamin Franklin, Esquire, 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 recompense."

Votes, 1763.

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 thank 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.

APPENDIX.

No. IV.

The Examination of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, before the English House of Commons, in February, 1766, relative to the Repeal of the American Stamp Act.

1

[Referred to in MEMOIRS, PART 111. p. 326.]

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 to 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 favor 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.

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 expense 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 VOL. II.

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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 thiuly 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 mahy 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.'

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 paper-money, 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.