In exculpation of myself, I assure you that I never received any letter from you of that date. And indeed, being then but four days landed at Nantes, 1 think you could scarce have heard so soon of my being in Europe.

But I received one from you of the 8th of January, which I own I did not answer. It may displease you if I give you the reason; but as it may be of use to you in your future correspondences, I will hazard that for a gentleman to whom I feel myself obliged, as an American, on account of his good-will to our cause.

Whoever writes to a stranger should observe three points; 1. That what he proposes be practicable. 2. His propositions should be made in explicit terms, so as to be easily understood. 3. What he desires should be in itself reasonable. Hereby he will give a favorable impression of his understanding, and create a desire of further acquaintance. Now it happened that you were negligent in all these points: for, first, you desired to have means procured for you of taking a voyage to America" avec sureté ;" which is not possible, as the dangers of the sea subsist always, and át present there is the additional danger of being taken by the English. Then you desire that this may be "sans trop grandes dépenses," which is not intelligible enough to be answered, because, not knowing your ability of bearing expenses, one cannot judge what may be trop grandes. Lastly, you de

sire letters of address to the congress and to General Washington; which it is not reasonable to ask of one who knows no more of you than that your name is LITH, and that you live at BAYREUTH. In your last you also express yourself in vague terms, when you desire to be informed whether you may expect "d'être reçu d'une manière convenable" in our troops? As it is impossible to know what your ideas are of the manière convenable, how can one answer this? And then you demand, whether I will support you by my authority in giving you letters of recommendation? I doubt not your being a man of merit; and knowing it yourself, you may forget that it is not known to every body: but reflect a moment, sir, and you will be convinced, that if I were to practise giving letters of recommendation to persons of whose character I knew no more than I do of yours, my recommendations would soon be of no authority at all.

I thank you, however, for your kind desire of being serviceable to my countrymen; and I wish in return that I could be of service to you in the scheme you have formed of going to America. But numbers, of experienced officers here have offered to go over and join our army, and I could give them no encouragement, because I have no orders for that purpose, and I know it extremely difficult to place them when they arrive there. I cannot but think, therefore, that it is best for you not to make so long, so expensive, and so hazard

ous a voyage, but to take the advice of your friends, and "stay in Franconia." I have the honor to be, sir, &c. B. FRANKLIN.

Before we return to political occurrences, as connected with the memoirs of Dr. Franklin, we have to notice an attempt that was made in 1777, to detract, if not to annul, the great discovery of the American philosopher, for the protection of buildings and ships from the effects of lightning. Mr. B. Wilson, F.R.S., who had formerly, at a meeting of the Royal Society, protested unsuccessfully against the pointed conductors of Franklin, now endeavored, by certain experiments, publicly exhibited at the Pantheon, to prove the superior advantage of knobs to points, or the greater safety to be derived from blunt to sharp lightning conductors. These experiments, it is said, were much countenanced by the king, who attended them, with some of the royal family; but their fallacy was soon discovered, as appears by the following article on the subject, in the London Evening Post of the 16th Sept. 1777.

"Monday, Mr. B. Wilson repeated his experiments at the Pantheon, before several fellows of the Royal Society, and other persons. Lord Viscount Mahon,' F.R.S. being present, had a great dispute with Mr. Wilson concerning his experi

The late Lord Stanhope. (1818.)

ments, and showed him that he was wrong in both his assertions: first, that knobs are better than points; and secondly, that low conductors are better than high ones. His lordship proved both these assertions to be false, and showed also that Mr. Wilson had entirely misunderstood, and had consequently misrepresented the philosophical opinions of Dr. Franklin. Lord Mahon repeated several experiments of his own to prove his assertions; and by invariably succeeding in them, at the same time that those of Mr. Wilson failed repeatedly, his lordship proved this to demonstration; and by so doing gave great satisfaction to the best informed persons present, Mr. Wilson went to the other end of the room, as if to avoid seeing Lord Mahon's experiments. He afterwards said that he had not changed his opinions, and would publish his own hypothesis; upon which Lord Mahon told Mr. Wilson, in a most candid and gentleman-like manner, that he was very sorry to be obliged to differ in opinion from him, but as the question about con ductors for lightning was of so great importance to this country, and to society in general, that if Mr. Wilson should publish an erroneous opinion upon this subject, he would also pledge himself to the public to refute him in print.

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A few days after, Mr. Wilson's alleged improvement was completely negatived by the discovery and exposure of the delusion attending those experiments which had appeared favorable to it.

This took place on the 2d October, when several members of the Royal Society, and other gentlemen conversant with electricity, went to see these experiments repeated; among these were Mr. Henly and Mr. Nairne, both fellows of the Royal Society, who pointed out and demonstrated the fallacy of the expedients intended to establish Mr. Wilson's philosophical reputation at the expense of that of Dr. Franklin..

Another member of the Royal Society, (and of most of the learned societies of Europe,) the ingenious Dr. Ingenhausz, who had assisted at these experiments, afterwards wrote a very vehement letter on the subject, addressed to a friend on the continent, giving a full account of what he called Mr. Wilson's “charlatanerie.' But the letter is too long and violent to be here inserted.

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The writer mentions, that pending these experiments, the pointed lightning conductors were taken down from the queen's palace.*

'Since the publication of the first edition of these memoirs, the editor has been satisfied that there was no evidence to jus. tify a charge of intentional fraud against Mr. Wilson.-The makers of experiments are very liable to be deceived by them, and to flatter themselves with a belief that they have made great discoveries, when there is no solid foundation for such belief: and in these cases self-love often hinders them from detecting those deceptive circumstances, which are obvious to more disinterested persons.

This was a fact; and they have never since been re-esta