I fear I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you this year, perhaps the next I may.

Please to send me a book lately advertised; I think it is called A Collection of Sentences, Wise Sayings, etc., by some officer about the Parliament House; his name I have forgot.

With all our best respects to you and yours, I am, dear sir, your most obliged friend and servant, B. FRANKLIN. What is the price of printing paper in London?

TO WILLIAM STRAHAN

PHILADELPHIA, 23 October, 1749. DEAR SIR:-I hope before this can reach you your Parliament will have met and ordered payment of what has been so long due on account of the Canada expedition. In the settling our account I will make you a reasonable allowance for the disappointment occasioned by the delay of my son's bill.

J. Read has removed into a house of less rent, which I was well pleased with. I have had no talk with him lately about your affairs, but still hope the best; and it shall not be long before I take an opportunity of urging him to discharge some part of the bond.

I am now engaged in a new public affair, as you will see by the enclosed, which I hope, with God's blessing, will very soon be in good train. I have not laid aside my intention of seeing England, and believe shall execute it next year, if nothing extra

ordinary occurs, in which your conversation is not one of the least pleasures I propose to myself.

I hope this will find you and good Mrs. Strahan safe returned from your northern journey. I am just setting out on one, and have only time to add that I am, with great esteem and sincere affection, dear sir, your most obliged humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN.

P. S.-Please to give my account credit for what you receive by the enclosed power of attorney, and let me know the sum, that I may pay the person here.

TO WILLIAM STRAHAN

PHILADELPHIA, 4 February, 1750, 51.

DEAR SIR:-I wrote you per Capt. Budden, who sailed the beginning of December, and sent you a bill of exchange on Jonathan Gurnel & Co. for £50, and desired you to send one Viner's Bacon and Danver's Abridgments of the Law, with Wood's and Coke's Institutes. I have no copy of the letter, and forget whether I added the Complete Attorney, in six or eight volumes, 8vo, the precedents in English; please to send that also. I likewise desired you to enter my son's name, William Franklin, in one of the Inns of Court as a student of law, which, I am told, costs between £5 and £6, and to let me know what time must expire before he can be called to the bar after such entry, because he intends to go to London a year or two before, to finish his studies.

I hope that letter got to hand. I see they have printed a new translation of Tully on Old Age; please to send me one of them.

Mr. Hall continues well, and goes on perfectly to my satisfaction. My respects to Mrs. Strahan and Master Billy. I have not time to add but that I am with great esteem and affection, dear sir, your most obliged humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO WILLIAM STRAHAN

PHILADELPHIA, 2 June, 1750.

DEAR SIR:-The person from whom you had the power of attorney to receive a legacy, was born in Holland, and at first called Aletta Crell; but not being christened when the family came to live among the English in America, she was baptized by the name of Mary. This change of name probably might be unknown to the testator, as it happened in Carolina, and so the legacy might be left her by her first name Aletta. She has wrote it on a piece of paper, which I enclose, and desires you would take the trouble of acquainting the gentleman with these particulars, which she thinks may induce him to pay the money.

I am glad to understand by the papers that the Parliament has provided for paying off the debts due on the Canada expedition. I suppose my son's pay is now in your hands. I am willing to allow 6 per cent. (the rate of interest here), for the delay; or more, if the disappointment has been a greater loss

to you. I hope the £50 bill I lately sent you is come to hand and paid.

The description you give of the company and manner of living in Scotland would almost tempt one to remove thither. Your sentiments of the general foible of mankind in the pursuit of wealth to no end are expressed in a manner that gave me great pleasure in reading. They are extremely just; at least they are perfectly agreeable to mine. But London citizens, they say, are ambitious of what they call dying worth a great sum. The very notion seems to me absurd; and just the same as if a man should run in debt for 1,000 superfluities, to the end that when he should be stripped of all, and imprisoned by his creditors, it might be said, he broke worth a great sum. I imagine that what we have above what we can use, is not properly ours, though we possess it; and that the rich man who must die, was no more worth what he leaves, than the debtor who must pay.

I am glad to hear so good a character of my sonin-law. Please to acquaint him that his spouse grows finely and will probably have an agreeable person. That with the best natural disposition in the world, she discovers daily the seeds and tokens of industry, economy, and, in short, of every female virtue, which her parents will endeavor to cultivate for him; and if the success answer their fond wishes and expectations, she will, in the true sense of the word, be worth a great deal of money, and consequently a great fortune.'

The "Spouse" here alluded to, Sarah Franklin, afterwards Mrs. Bache, was then in the sixth year of her age. Master Strahan the "son-in-law" was presumably not much older.

I suppose my wife writes to Mrs. Strahan. Our friend, Mr. Hall, is well, and manages perfectly to my satisfaction. I cannot tell how to accept your repeated thanks for services you think I have done to him, when I continually feel myself obliged to him, and to you for sending him. I sincerely wish all happiness to you and yours, and, am dear sir, your most obliged humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO WILLIAM STRAHAN

PHILADELPHIA, 28 June, 1751.

DEAR SIR:-I received yours of March 26th, with the books per Smith, in good order; and your account, which agrees with mine, except in a trifle, the share of the charges on Ainsworth carried to J. Read's account. I am concerned at your lying so long out of your money, and must think of some way of making you amends. I have wrote to Smith at Antigua to quicken him in discharging his debt to you. I purpose, God willing, to go over with my son as soon as it becomes necessary for him to go,' when I hope to have the pleasure of finding you and yours well and happy. In the parcel of books I had from you, 1747 (I think the last parcel), there were a number of law books. When I quitted the shop to Mr. Hall, they were left in his hands for sale, the person who had ordered them not taking them. Now we have lost or mislaid the invoice between us, and

' Preparatory to his admission to the bar. See p. 249, letter of Feb. 4, 1750.