Mrs. W. has partaken of it: she likes to read the advertisements; but she remarks some kind of inconsistency in the announcing so many diversions for almost every evening in the week, and such quantities to be sold of expensive superAuities, fineries, and luxuries just imported, iu a country that at the same time fills its papers with complaints of hard times, and want of money. I tell her that such complaints are common to all times and all countries, and were made even in Solomon's time; when, as we are told, silver was as plenty in Jerusalem as the stones in the street, and yet even then there were people that grumbled, so as to incur this censure from that knowing prince. Say not thou that the former times were better than these; for thou dost not inquire rightly concerning that matter.

But the inconsistence that strikes me the most is that between the name of your city, Philadelphia, (brotherly love) and the spirit of rancor, malice, and hatred, that breathes in its newspapers! For I learn from those papers that your state is divided into parties; that each party ascribes all the public operations of the other to vicious motives; that they do not even suspect oue another of the smallest degree of honesty; that the antifederalists are such, merely from the fear of losing power, places, or emoluments, which they have in possession or in expectation; that the federalists are a set of conspirators, who aim at establishing a tyranny over the persons and property of their countrymen, and to live in splendor on the plunder of the people. I learn too that your justices of the peace, though chosen by their neighbors, make a villainous trade of their office, and promote discord to augment fees, and fleece their electors; and that this would not be mended by placing the choice in the executive council, who with interested or party views are continually making as improper appointments; witness a "petty fiddler, sycophant

and scoundrel" appointed judge of the admiralty; "an old woman and fomenter of sedition" to be another of the judges, and "a Jeffries" chief justice, &c. &c.; with "two harpies," the comptroller and naval officers to prey upon the merchants, and deprive them of their property by force of arms, &c. I am informed also by these papers, that your general assembly, though the annual choice of the people, shows no regard to their rights, but from sinister views or ignorance makes laws in direct violation of the constitution, to divest the inhabitants of their property and give it to strangers and intruders; and that the council, either fearing the resentment of their constituents,, or plotting to enslave them, had projected to disarm them, and given orders for that purpose; and finally, that your president, the unanimous joint choice of the council and assembly, is "an old rogue," who gave his assent to the federal constitution merely to avoid refunding money he had purloined from the United States. There is indeed a good deal of manifest inconsistency in all this, and yet a stranger seeing it in your own prints, though he does not believe it all, may probably believe enough of it to conclude that Pennsylvania is peopled by a set of the most unprincipled, wicked, rascally, and quarrelsome scoundrels upon the face of the globe. I have sometimes indeed suspected, that those papers are the manufacture of foreign enemies among you, who write with the view of disgracing your country, and making you appear contemptible and detestable all the world over: but then I wonder at the indiscretion of your printers in publishing such writings! There is however one of your inconsistencies that consoles me a little, which is, that though living, you give one another the characters of devils; dead you are all angels! It is delightful when any of you die, to read what good husbands, good fathers, good friends, good citizens, and good Christians you were, concluding with a

scrap of poetry that places you, with certainty, every one in heaven. So that I think Pennsylvania a good country to die in, though a very bad one to live in.

To M. LE VEILLARD.

Respecting Dr. Franklin's memoirs of his own life-The new constitution-Custom-house duties.

MY DEAR FRIEND, Philadelphia, April 22, 1788.

I received but a few days since your favor of November 30, 1787, in which you continue to urge me to finish the memoirs. My three years of service will expire in October, when a new president must be chosen; and I had the project of retiring then to my grandson's estate in New Jersey, where I might be free from the interruption of visits, in order to complete that work for your satisfaction; for in this city my time is so cut to pieces by friends and strangers, that I have sometimes envied the prisoners in the Bastile : but considering now the little remnant of life I have left, the accidents that may happen between this and October, and your earnest desire, I have come to a resolution to proceed in that work to-morrow, and continue it daily till finished, which, if my health permits, may be in the course of the ensuing summer. As it goes on I will have a copy made for you, and you may expect to receive a part by the next packet.

It is very possible, as you suppose, that all the articles of the proposed new government will not remain unchanged after the first meeting of the congress. I am of opinion with you, that the two chambers were not necessary, and I disliked some other articles that are in, and wished for some that are not in the proposed plan; 1 nevertheless hope it may be adopted, though I should have nothing to do with

the execution of it, being determined to quit all public business with my present employment. At 83 one certainly bas a right to ambition repose.

We are not ignorant that the duties paid at the customhouse on the importation of foreign goods are finally reimbursed by the consumer, but we impose them as the easiest. way of levying a tax from those consumers. If our new country was as closely inhabited as your old one, we might, without much difficulty, collect a land-tax that would be sufficient for all purposes: but where farms are five or six miles distant from each other, as they are in a great part of our country, the going of the collectors from house to house to demand the taxes, and being obliged to call more than once for the same tax, makes the trouble of collecting in many cases exceed the value of the sum collected. Things that are practicable in one country are not always so in another, where circumstances differ. Our duties are however generally so small as to give little temptation to smuggling. Believe me ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN.

To MADAME LAVOISIER.

Thanking her for his portrait, &c.

Philadelphia, Oct. 23, 1788.

I have a long time been disabled from

writing to my dear friend by a severe fit of the gout, or I should sooner have returned my thanks for her very kind present of the portrait, which she has herself done me the honor to make of me. It is allowed by those who have seen it, to have great merit as a picture in every respect; but what particularly endears it to me is the hand that drew it. Our English enemies, when they were in possession of this

city and my house, made a prisoner of my portrait, and car ried it off with them, leaving that of its companion, my wife, by itself, a kind of widow. You have replaced the husband, and the lady seems to smile as well pleased.

It is true, as you observe, that I enjoy here every thing that a reasonable mind can desire, a sufficiency of income, a comfortable habitation of my own building, having all the conveniences I could imagine; a dutiful and affectionate daughter to nurse and take care of me, a number of promising grand-children, some old friends still remaining to converse with, and more respect, distinction, and public honors than Į can possibly merit; these are the blessings of God, and depend on his continued goodness: yet all do not make me forget Paris and the nine years' happiness I enjoyed there, in the sweet society of a people whose conversation is instructive, whose manners are highly pleasing, and who above all the nations of the world, have in the greatest perfection the art of making themselves beloved by strangers. And now, even in my sleep, I find, that the scenes of all my pleasant dreams are laid in that city, or in its neighborhood.

1 like much young M. Dupont. He appears a very sen sible and valuable man, and 1 think his father will have a great deal of satisfaction in him.

Please to present my thanks to M. Lavoisier for the Nomenclature Chimique he has been so good as to send me, (it must be a very useful book) and assure him of my great and sincere esteem and attachment. My best wishes attend you both; and I think I cannot wish you and him greater happiness than a long continuance of the connexion.

With great regard and affection, I have the honor to be, my dear friend, your most obliged and most obedient humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.