TO BENJAMIN VAUGHAN.

Manufactures. Books. - Loose Printing.

DEAR FRIEND,

Passy, 21 April, 1785.

I received your kind letter of the 23d past, by Mr. Perry, with the other bottle of Blackrie. I thank you much for your care in sending them. I should have been glad to be of any use to Mr. Perry; but he had placed his children before I saw him, and he stayed with me only a few minutes.

We see much in parliamentary proceedings, and in papers and pamphlets, of the injury the concessions to Ireland will do to the manufacturers of England, while the people of England seem to be forgotten, as if quite out of the question. If the Irish can manufacture cottons, and stuffs, and silks, and linens, and cutlery, and toys, and books, &c. &c. &c., so as to sell them cheaper in England than the manufacturers of England sell them, is not this good for the people of England, who are not manufacturers? And will not even the manufacturers themselves share the benefit? Since if cottons are cheaper, all the other manufacturers who wear cottons will save in that article; and so of the rest. If books can be had much cheaper from Ireland, (which I believe, for I bought Blackstone there. for twenty-four shillings, when it was sold in England. at four guineas,) is not this an advantage, not to English booksellers, indeed, but to English readers, and to learning? And of all the complainants, perhaps these booksellers are least worthy of consideration. catalogue you last sent me amazes me by the high prices (said to be the lowest) affixed to each article. And one can scarce see a new book, without observ

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ing the excessive artifices made use of to puff up a paper of verses into a pamphlet, a pamphlet into an octavo, and an octavo into a quarto, with scab-boardings, white-lines, sparse titles of chapters, and exorbitant margins, to such a degree, that the selling of paper seems now the object, and printing on it only the pretence. I enclose the copy of a page in a late comedy. Between every two lines there is a white space equal to another line. You have a law, I think, against butchers blowing of veal to make it look fatter; why not one against booksellers' blowing of books to make them. look bigger. All this to yourself; you can easily guess

the reason.

My grandson is a little indisposed, but sends you two pamphlets, Figaro, and Le Roy Voyageur. The first is a play of Beaumarchais, which has had a great run here. The other a representation of all the supposed errors of government in this country, some of which are probably exaggerated. It is not publicly sold; we shall send some more shortly.

Please to remember me very respectfully and affectionately to good Dr. Price. I am glad that he has printed a translation of the Testament, it may do good. I am ever, my dear friend, yours most sincerely, B. FRANKLIN.

I remember nothing; I shall soon forget my Christian name."

If this page was printed running on like Erasmus's Colloquies, it would not have made more than five lines.

TO JOHN INGENHOUSZ.

Invitation to accompany him to America. Idle Stories about that Country. Emperor of Germany.

DEAR SIR,

Passy, 29 April, 1785.

I thank you much for the postscript respecting my disorder, the stone. I have taken heretofore, and am now again taking the remedy you mention, which is called Bluckrie's Solvent. It is the soap lie, with limewater, and I believe it may have some effect in diminishing the symptoms, and preventing the growth

of the stone, which is all I expect from it. It does not hurt my appetite; I sleep well, and enjoy my friends in cheerful conversation as usual. But, as I cannot use much exercise, I eat more sparingly than formerly, and I drink no wine.

I admire, that you should be so timid in asking leave of your good imperial master to make a journey for visiting a friend. I am persuaded you would succeed, and I hope the proposition I have repeated to you in this letter will assist your courage, and enable you to ask and obtain. If you come hither soon, you may, when present, get your book finished, and be ready to proceed with me to America. While writing this, I have received from Congress my leave to return; and I believe I shall be ready to embark by the middle of July, at farthest. I shall now be free from politics for the rest of my life. Welcome again, my dear philosophical amusements!

I see by a full page of your letter, that you have been possessed with strange ideas of America; that there is no justice to be obtained there, no recovery of debts, projects of insurrection to overturn the present government, &c. &c.; that a Virginia colonel, nephew of the governor, had cheated a stranger of a hundred thousand livres, and that somebody was imprisoned for only speaking of it; and the like very improbable stories. They are all fictions or misrepresentations. If they were truths, all strangers would avoid such a country, and foreign merchants would as soon carry their goods to sell in Newgate as America. Think a little on the sums England has spent to preserve a monopoly of the trade of that people, with whom they had long been acquainted; and of the desire all Europe is now manifesting to obtain a share of that trade. Our ports are full of their ships, their mer

chants buying and selling in our streets continually, and returning with our products. Would this happen, could such commerce be continued with us, if we were such a collection of scoundrels and villains as we have been represented to you? And insurrections against our rulers are not only unlikely, as the rulers are the choice of the people, but unnecessary; as, if not liked, they may be changed annually by the new elections.

I own you have cause, great cause to complain of but you are wrong to condemn the whole country by a single sample. I have seen many countries, and I do not know a country in the world in which justice is so well administered, where protection and favor have so little power to impede its operations, and where debts are recovered with so much facility. If I thought it such a country as has been painted to you, I should certainly never return to it. The truth, I believe, is, that more goods have been carried thither from all parts of Europe, than the consumption of the country requires, and it is natural that some of the adventurers are willing to discourage others from following them, lest the prices should still be kept down by the arrival of fresh cargoes; and it is not unlikely, that some negligent or unfaithful factors sent thither, may have given such accounts to excuse their not making remittances. And the English magnify all this, and spread it abroad in their papers, to dissuade foreigners from attempting to interfere with them in their commerce with us.

Your account of the Emperor's condescending conversation with you concerning me is pleasing. I respect very much the character of that monarch, and think, that, if I were one of his subjects, he would find me a good one. I am glad that his difference with your country is likely to be accommodated with