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had been paid by yearly grants from the assembly; but from the year 1772, Peter Oliver, the chief justice of the supe-rior court, received his salary from the crown. This was resented by the assembly as a species of bribery, tending to bias his judicial determinations in favor of the mother country. They made it the foundation of an impeachment; but this produced no other consequence than a dissolution of the assembly which prosecuted the uncourtly measure.

"A personal animosity between governor Bernard, lieutenant-governor Hutchinson, and some distinguished patriots in Massachusetts, contributed to perpetuate a flame of discontent in that province, though elsewhere it had visibly abated. This was worked up in the year 1775 to a high pitch by a singular combination of circumstances. Some letters had been written in the course of the dispute by lieutenantgovernor Hutchinson, Mr. Oliver, and others in Boston, to' persons in power and office in England, which contained a yery unfavorable representation of public affairs, and tended to show the necessity of coercive measures, and of changing the chartered system of provincial government. These letters fell into the hands of Dr. Franklin, agent of the province, who transmitted them to his constituents. The indignation and animosity which was excited on their perusal, knew no bounds. The house of representatives agreed on a petition and remonstrance to his majesty, in which they charged their governor and lieutenant-governor with being betrayers of their trust, and of the people they governed; and of giving private, partial, and false information. They also declared them enemies to the colonies, and prayed for justice against them, and for their speedy removal from their places.

"This petition and remonstrance being transmitted to England, the merits of it were discussed before his majesty's privy council. After a hearing before that board, in which Dr. Franklin represented the province of Massachusetts, the governor and lieutenant-governor were acquitted. Mr. Wedderburn, (afterwards lord Loughborough,) who defended the

accused royal servants, in the course of his pleadings, inveighed against Dr. Franklin in the bitterest language, as the fomenter of the disputes between the two countries. It was no protection to this venerable sage, that being the agent of Massachusetts, he conceived it his duty to inform his constituents of letters written on public affairs, calculated to overturn their chartered constitution. The age, respectable character, and highly literary rank of the subject of the philippic of The pert, prim, prater of the northern race,' (as the satiric poet Churchill designates Wedderburn,) turned the attention of the public on the transaction. The insult offered to one of their public agents, and especially to one who was both the idol and ornament of his country, sunk deep into the minds of the Americans: that a faithful servant, whom they loved and almost adored, should be insulted for discharging his official duty, rankled in their hearts."w

Dr. Franklin told Mr. Lee, one of his counsel, after the business was concluded, that he was indifferent to Mr. Wedderburn's speech, but that he was indeed sincerely sorry to see the lords of council behave so indecently; manifesting, in the rudest manner, the great pleasure they received from the solicitor's speech; that dernier court, he said, before whom all the colony affairs were tried, was not likely to act in a candid and impartial manner upon any future American question. They showed, he added, that the coarsest language can be grateful to the politest ear.

The following short statement of Dr. Franklin's behaviour before the privy council, from the pen of Dr. Priestly, (who was present) may not be deemed uninteresting.

Extract of a letter from Dr. Priestly, dated Northumberland, United States, Nov. 10, 1802.

"I shall proceed to relate some particulars respecting Dr. Franklin's behavior, when lord Loughborough, (then Mr. Wedderburn, pronounced his violent invective against him at

See the Examinations, vol. IV. p. 109, of this edition.

the privy council, on his presenting the complaints of the province of Massachusetts against their governor. Some of the particulars may be thought amusing.

"On the morning of the day on which the cause was to be heard, I met Mr. Burke, in Parliament street, accompanied by Dr. Douglas, afterwards, bishop of Carlisle; and after introducing us to each other as men of letters, he asked me whither I was going? I said I could tell him where I wished to go. He then asking me where it was, I said to the privy-council, but that I was afraid I could not get admission. He then desired me to go along with him. Accordingly I did; but when we got into the anti-room, we found it quite filled with persons as desirous of getting admission as ourselves. Seeing this, I said we should never get through the crowd. He said, "give me your arm;" and locking it fast in his, he soon made his way to the door of the privy-council. I then said, “Mr. Burke, you are an excellent leader:" he replied, "I wish other persons thought so too."

After waiting a short time, the door of the privy-council opened, and we entered the first, when Mr. Burke took his stand behind the first chair next to the president, and I behind that the next to his. When the business was opened, it was sufficiently evident, from the speech of Mr. Wedderburn, who was counsel for the governor, that the real object of the court was to insult Dr. Franklin. All this time he stood in a corner of the room, not far from me, without the least apparent emotion.

Mr. Dunning, who was the leading counsel on the part of the colony, was so hoarse, that he could hardly make himself heard; and Mr. Lee, who was the second, spoke but feebly in reply; so that Mr. Wedderburn had a complete triumph. At the sallies of his sarcastic wit, all the members of the council, the president himself (lord Gower) not excepted, frequently laughed outright. No person belonging to the

* Error. He stood close to the fire, and in front of the council-table.

council behaved with decent gravity, except lord North, who, coming late, took his stand behind the chair opposite to me. When the business was over, Dr. Franklin, in going out, took me by the hand, in a manner that indicated some feeling. I soon followed him, and going through the anti-room, saw Mr. Wedderburn there, surrounded with a circle of his friends and admirers. Being known to him, he stepped forwards as if to speak to me; but I turned aside, and made what haste I could out of the place.

The next morning I breakfasted with the doctor, when he said," he had never before been so sensible of the power of a good conscience; for if he had not considered the thing for which he had been so much insulted, as one of the best actions of his life, and what he should certainly do again in the same circumstances, he could not have supported it." He was accused of clandestinely procuring certain letters, containing complaints of the governor, and sending them to America, with a view to excite their animosity against him, and thus to embroil the two countries. But he assured me, that he did not even know that such letters existed, till they were brought to him as agent for the colony, in order to be sent to his constituents; and the cover of the letters on which the direction had been written, being lost, he only guessed at the person to whom they were addressed, by the contents.

That Dr. Franklin, notwithstanding he did not show it at the time, was much impressed by the business of the privycouncil, appeared from this circumstance: when he attended there, he was dressed in a suit of Manchester velvet; and Silas Deane told me, when they met at Paris, to sign the treaty between France and America, he purposely put on that suit.

The publication of the letters of Hutchinson and Oliver, by the legislature of Massachusetts, and the transmission of attested copies of the same, with their address, eventually produced a duel between Mr. William Whately, (brother of the deceased Mr. Thomas Whately, secretary to the treasury,

to whom the letters were originally addressed, and in whose possession they were supposed to have been at the time of his death, in 1772,) and Mr. John Temple, of Boston, New England; each of whom had been suspected of having been instrumental in procuring the letters, and sending them to America. This tragical event, which Dr. Franklin could not foresee, nor had an opportunity of preventing, was maliciously made use of hy his enemies to cast an odium on his character.

The following account of the whole of this mysterious affair is taken from a manuscript in Dr. Franklin's own hand-writing, found among his papers; evidently drawn up with a view to justify his conduct with respect to those famous letters, and the unfortunate event that resulted therefrom, and probably with the intent of inserting it in his me moirs, had he continued them to that period of his life. For these reasons the editor conceives it his duty to embody it with the present work, as well for the justification of his illustrious relative, as an historical document respecting a transaction important in the American annais, and which has never before been thoroughly elucidated.

Dr. Franklin may be considered as thus again continuing his own memoirs.

HAVING been from my youth more or less engaged in public affairs, it has often happened to me in the course of my life, to be censured sharply for the part I took in them. Such censures I have generally passed over in silence, conceiving, when they were just, that I ought rather to amend than defend; and when they were undeserved, that a little time would justify me. Much experience has confirmed my

▾ Afterwards sir John Temple, and for several years British consul in

the United States.

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