TO JOSEPH GALLOWAY, Esq. Lord Hillsborough's resignation-Lord Dartmouth succeeded him-Lord Rochford. DEAR FRIEND, 1 London, August 22, 1772. I acknowledged before the receipt of your favor of May 14, since which I have no line from you. It will be a pleasure to render any service to Mr. Tilghman, whom you recommended. The acts passed in your winter and spring sessions I have not yet received, nor have I heard from Mr. Wilmot that they have been presented. Lord Hillsborough, mortified by the committee of council's approbation of our grant in opposition to his report, has resigned. I believe when he offered to do so, he had such an opinion of his importance, that he did not think it would be accepted; and that it would be thought prudent rather to set our grant aside than part with him. His colleagues in the ministry were all glad to get rid of him, and perhaps for this reason joined more readily in giving him that mortification. Lord Dartmouth succeeds him, who has much more favorable dispositions towards the colonies. He has heretofore expressed some personal regard for me, and I hope now to find our business with the board more easy to transact. Your observations on the state of the islands did not come to hand till after lord Rochford had withdrawn his petition. His lordship and the promoters of it were so roasted on the occasion, that I believe another of the kind will not very soon be thought of. The proprietor was at the expense of the opposition; and as I knew it would not be necessary, and thought it might be inconvenient to our affairs, I did not openly engage in it; but I gave some private assistance, that I believe was not without effect: I think too that Mr. Jackson's opinion was of great service. I would lodge a copy of your paper in the plantation office against any similar future applications if you approve of it. I only think the island holders make too great a concession to the crown when they suppose it may have a right to quit-rent. It can have none in my opinion on the old grants from Indians, Swedes, and Dutch, where none was reserved. And I think those grants so clearly good as to need no confirmation, to obtain which I suppose is the only motive for offering such quit-rent. I imagine too, that it may not be amiss to affix a caveat in the plantation office, in the behalf of holders of property in those islands, against any grant of them that may be applied for, till they have had timely notice and an oppor→ tunity of being fully heard. Mr. Jackson is out of town, but I shall confer with him on the subject as soon as he returns. I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. To JOSEPH GALLOWAY, Esq. Lord Dartmouth-Court of exchequer pany-Duty on tea, &c. DEAR FRIEND, The Indian com London, Dec. 2, 1772.. I am glad you are returned again to a seat in the assembly, where your abilities are so useful and necessary in the service of your country. We must not in the course of public life expect immediate approbation and immediate grateful acknowledgment of our services. But let us persevere through abuse and even injury. The internal satis faction of a good conscience is always present, and time will do us justice in the minds of the people, even those at present the most prejudiced against us. I have given Dr. Denormandie a recommendation to a friend in Geneva, for which place he set out this morning; and I shall be glad of any opportunity of serving him when he returns to London. I see by a Pennsylvania gazette of October 21, that you are continued speaker, and myself agent; but I have no line from you or the committee relative to instructions. Perhaps I shall hear from you by Falconer. I find myself upon very good terms with our new minister lord Dartmouth, who, we have reason to think, means well to the colonies. I believe all are now sensible that nothing is to be got by contesting with, or oppressing us. Two circumstances have diverted me lately. One was, that being at the court of exchequer on some business of my own, I there met with one of the commissioners of the stamp office, who told me he attended with a memorial from that board, to be allowed in their accounts the difference between their expense in endeavoring to establish those offices in America, and the amount of what they received, which from Canada and the West India islands was but about 1,500l., while the expense, if I remember right, was above 12,000l., being for stamps and stamping, with paper and parchment returned upon their hands, freight, &c. The other is the present difficulties of the India company, and of government on their account. The company have accepted bills, which they find themselves unable to pay, though they have the value of two millions, in tea and other India goods, in their stores, perishing under a want of demand. Their credit thus suffering, and their stock falling 120 per cent., whereby the government will lose the 400,000l. per annum, it having been stipulated that it should no longer be paid if the dividend fell to that mark. And although it is known that the American market is lost by continuing the duty on tea, and that we are supplied by the Dutch, who doubtless take the opportunity of smuggling other India goods among us with the tea, so that for the five years past we might probably have otherwise taken off the greatest part of what the company have on hand, and so have prevented their present embarrassment, yet the honor of government is supposed to forbid the repeal of the American tea-duty; while the amount of all the duties goes on decreasing, so that the balance of this year does not (as I have it from good authority) exceed 801. after paying the collection; not reckoning the immense expense of guarda costas, &c. Can an American help smiling at these blunders ? though in a national light they are truly deplorable. With the sincerest esteem, and inviolable attachment, I am, my dear friend, ever most affectionately yours. B. FRANKLIN. To THOMAS CUSHING, Esq. Petition from Massachusetts Bay-Reasons for delaying the SIR, presenting it. London, Dec. 2, 1772. The above is a copy of my last. A few days after my leaving your petition with Lord Dartmouth, his lordship sent for me to discourse with me upon it. After a long audience he was pleased to say, that notwithstanding all I had said, or could say, in support and justification of the petition, he was sure the presenting it at this time could not possibly produce any good: that the king would be exceedingly offended, but what steps his majesty would take upon it was uncertain; perhaps he would require the opinion of the judges or government lawyers, which would surely be against us; perhaps he might lay it before parliament, and so the censure of both houses would be drawn down upon us the most favorable thing to be expected was, a severe reprimand to the assembly by order of his majesty, the natural consequence of which must be more discontent and uneasiness in the province. That possessed as he was with great good-will for New England, he was extremely unwilling that one of the first acts of his administration, with regard to Massachusetts, should be of so unpleasant a nature. That minds had been heated and irritated on both sides the water, but he hoped those heats were now cooling, and he was averse to the addition of fresh fuel; that, as I had delivered the petition to him officially, he must present it if I insisted upon it; but he wished I would first consult my constituents, who might possibly, on reconsideration, think fit to order its being deferred. I answered that the great majority with which the petition, and the resolves on which it was founded, were carried through the house, made it scarce expectable that their order would be countermanded; that the slighting, evading, or refusing to receive petitions from the colonies on some late occasions by the parliament, had occasioned a total loss of the respect for, and confidence in, that body formerly subsisting so strongly in America, and brought on a questioning of their authority that his lordship might observe that petitions came no more from that country to parliament, but to the king only that the king appeared to be now the only connexion between the two countries; and that as a continued union was essentially necessary to the well-being of the whole empire, I should be sorry to see that link weakened as the other had been; that I thought it a dangerous thing for any government to refuse receiving petitions, and thereby prevent the subjects from giving vent to their griefs. His lordship interrupted me by replying that he did not refuse to deliver the petition; that it should never justly be said of him, that he interrupted the complaints of his majesty's subjects, and that he must and would present it, as he had said before, whenever I should absolutely require it; but from motives of pure good-will to : : |