Imperial Academy of Sciences, which is at St. Petersburgh under my direction, I was greatly surprised when, reviewing the list of its members some days ago, I did not find your name in the number. I hastened therefore to acquire this honor for the Academy, and you were received among its members with an unanimous applause and joy. I beg you, sir, to accept of this title, and to believe that I look upon it as an honor acquired by our Academy. I shall order the patent to be despatched to you as soon as possible. In the meantime be assured that it is with the greatest pleasure that I profit of the present occasion to give you token of my regard and veneration for your eminent character, and I shall always recollect with pride the advantage I had to be personally noticed by you. With a sincere consideration I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant, PRINCESS OF DASCHKOFF. MDLXVIII TO SAMUEL MOORE PHILADELPHIA, 5 November, 1789. DEAR SIR:-I received your favor of July 25th, but had no opportunity of showing any civility to the bearer, whom you mention as coming under the auspices of William Franklin, as he did not show himself to me. I am obliged by your kind inquiries after my health, which is still tolerably good, the stone excepted; my constitution being such as, if it were not for that malady, might have held out yet some years longer. I hope the fire of liberty, which you mention as spreading itself over Europe, will act upon the inestimable rights of man, as common fire does upon gold; purify without destroying them; so that a lover of liberty may find a country in any part of Christendom. I see with pleasure in the public prints, that our Society is still kept up and flourishes. I was an early member; for, when Mr. Shipley sent me a list of the subscribers, they were but seventy; and, though I had no expectation then of going to England and acting with them, I sent a contribution of twenty guineas; in consideration of which the Society were afterwards pleased to consider me a member. I wish to the exertions of your manufacturers, who are generally excellent, and to the spirit and enterprise of your merchants, who are famed for fair and honorable dealing, all the success they merit in promoting the prosperity of your country. I am glad our friend Small enjoys so much health, and his faculties so perfectly, as I perceive he does by his letters. I know not whether he is yet returned from his visit to Scotland, and therefore give you the trouble of the enclosed. My best wishes attend you, being ever, dear sir, your most obedient servant, B. FRANKLIN. I The London Society for Promoting Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, of which Mr. Moore was Secretary. MDLXIX TO ALEXANDER SMALL PHILADELPHIA, 5 November, 1789. DEAR SIR: I received your several favors of April 23d, May 9th, and June 2d, together with the manuscript concerning Ventilation which will be inserted in our next volume. I have long been of your opinion, that your legal provision for the poor is a very great evil, operating as it does to the encouragement of idleness. We have followed your example, and begin now to see our error, and, I hope, shall reform it. I find by your letters, that every man has patience enough to bear calmly and coolly the injuries done to other people. You have perfectly forgiven the royalists, and you seem to wonder that we should still retain any resentment against them for their joining with the savages to burn our houses, and murder and scalp our friends, our wives, and our children. I forget who it was that said: "We are commanded to forgive our enemies, but we are nowhere commanded to forgive our friends." Certain it is, however, that atrocious injuries done to us by our friends are naturally more deeply resented than the same done by enemies. They have left us, to live under the government of their king in England and Nova Scotia. We do not miss them, nor wish their return; nor do we envy them their present happiness. The accounts you give me of the great prospects you have respecting your manufactures, agriculture, and commerce, are pleasing to me; for I still love England and wish it prosperity. You tell me that the government of France is abundantly punished for its treachery to England in assisting us. You might also have remarked that the government of England had been punished for its treachery to France in assisting the Corsicans, and in seizing her ships in time of full peace, without any previous declaration of war. I believe governments are pretty near equal in honesty, and cannot with much propriety praise their own in preference to that of their neighbors. You do me too much honor in naming me with Timoleon. I am like him only in retiring from my public labors; which indeed my stone and other infirmities of age have made indispensably necessary. I hope you are by this time returned from your visit to your native country, and that the journey has given a firmer consistence to your health. Mr. Penn's property in this country, which you inquire about, is still immensely great; and I understand he has received ample compensation in England for the part he lost. I think you have made a happy choice of rural amusements: the protection of the bees, and the destruction of the hop insect. I wish success to your experiments, and shall be glad to hear the result. Your "Theory of Insects" appears the most ingenious and plausible of any that have hitherto been proposed by philosophers. Our new Constitiution is now established with eleven States, and the accession of a twelfth is soon expected. We have had one session of Congress under it, which was conducted with remarkable prudence and a good deal of unanimity. Our late harvests were plentiful, and our produce still fetches a good price, through an abundant foreign demand and the flourishing state of our commerce. I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. MDLXX AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA SLAVERY, AND THE RELIEF OF FREE NEGROES PHILADELPHIA, 9 November, 1789. It is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends of humanity, that, in prosecuting the design of our association, our endeavors have proved successful far beyond our most sanguine expectations. Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that luminous and benign spirit of liberty, which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance of the divine blessing on our labors, we have ventured to make an important addition to our original plan, and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasure of beneficence. Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed |