view to publication. Here will be seen to equal advantage, the philosopher and the man of business, the moralist and negotiator, the profound legislator, and the familiar friend, who opens his mind and delivers his sentiments with the same ingenuousness on matters of science and policy, the conduct of private life, and the interests of nations. The correspondence contained in this collection, is indeed a store of the soundest lessons of practical wisdom upon subjects of universal moment, and it is also a repository of information which will afford the best instruction to politicians, and will prove a sure guide to the future historian, who shall undertake the task of recording the several stages that have led to the establishment of American Independence, with the consequences of that event upon the states of Europe. The Memoirs Of The Life, and the Private CorRespondence of Dr. Franklin, will show much more clearly the great chain on which the fate of nations depends, than the debates of senates, the cabals of cabinets, or the details of battles: and to an Englishman, the Letters, now for the first time
published, will be curious and important in a very high degree, as throwing a strong light upon the early part of the present reign, and upon the characters of those persons who had a principal share in the counsels which produced the dismemberment of the British empire, and the creation of a power, which, from being a dependent state, has become its most formidable rival.