right is nothing, and the power, by our increase, continually diminishing, the one will soon be as insignificant as the other. You seem only to have made a small mistake, in supposing they modestly avoided to declare they had a right, the words of the act being, "that they have and of right ought to have, full power, &c."

Your suspicion that sundry others, besides Governor Bernard, "had written hither their opinions and counsels, encouraging the late measures to the prejudice of our country, which have been too much heeded and followed," is, I apprehend, but too well founded. You call them "traitorous individuals," whence I collect, that you suppose them of our own country. There was among the twelve Apostles one traitor, who betrayed with a kiss. It should be no wonder, therefore, if among so many thousand true patriots, as New England contains, there should be found even twelve Judases ready to betray their country for a few paltry pieces of silver. Their ends, as well as their views, ought to be similar. But all the oppressions evidently work for our good. Providence seems by every means intent on making us a great people. May our virtues public and private grow with us, and be durable, that liberty, civil and religious, may be secured to our posterity, and to all from every part of the Old World that take refuge among us.

Το William Franklin, dated London,

I am glad to find by yours of May 4th, that have been able to assist Josiah Davenport you 14 July, 1773. a little; but vexed that he and you should think of putting me upon a solicitation, which it is impossible for me to engage in. I am not upon terms with Lord North, to ask any such favor from him. Displeased with

something he said relating to America, I have never been at his levees, since the first. Perhaps he has taken that amiss. For the last week we met occasionally at Lord Le Despencer's, in our return from Oxford, where I had been to attend the solemnity of his installation, and he seemed studiously to avoid speaking to me. I ought to be ashamed to say, that on such occasions I feel myself to be as proud as anybody. His lady indeed was more gracious. She came, and sat down by me on the same sofa, and condescended to enter into a conversation with me agreeably enough, as if to make some amends. Their son and daughter were with them. They stayed all night, so that we dined, supped, and breakfasted together, without exchanging three sentences. But, had he ever so great a regard for me, I could not ask that office, trifling as it is, for any relation of mine. And, detesting as I do the whole system of American customs, believing they will one day bring on a breach, through the indiscretion and insolence of those concerned in the collection, I should never wish to see one so near to me in that business. If you think him capable of acting as deputy secretary, I imagine you might easily obtain that for him of Mr. Morgan.

He has lately been with me, is always very complaisant, and, understanding I was about returning to America, requested my interest to obtain for him the agency for your province. His friend, Sir Watkin Lewes, who was formerly candidate for the same great place, is now high sheriff of London, and in the way of being Lord Mayor. The new sheriffs elect are (could you think it?) both Americans, viz. Mr. Sayre, the New Yorker, and Mr. William Lee, brother to Dr. Lee. I am glad you stand so well with Lord Dartmouth. I am likewise well with him, but he never spoke

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to me of augmenting your salary. He is truly a good man, and wishes sincerely a good understanding with the colonies, but does not seem to have strength equal to his wishes. Between you and me, the late measures have been, I suspect, very much the King's own, and he has in some cases a great share of what his friends call firmness. Yet, by some painstaking and proper management, the wrong impressions he has received may be removed, which is perhaps the only chance America has for obtaining soon the redress she aims at. This entirely to yourself.

And, now we are among great folks, let me tell you a little of Lord Hillsborough. I went down to Oxford with and at the instance of Lord Le Despencer, who is on all occasions very good to me, and seems of late very desirous of my company.* Mr. Todd too was there, who has some

* It was doubtless during this trip that Franklin's fable of the Eagle and the Cat was written. It was preserved by John Adams, who has thus set it down in his correspondence. See "Life and Works of John Adams," vol. ix. p. 268.

"Dr. Franklin told me that before his return to America from England in 1775, he was in company, I believe, at Lord Spencer's, with a number of English noblemen, when the conversation turned upon fables, those of Æsop, La Fontaine, Gay, Moore, &c. Some one of the company observed that he thought the subject was exhausted. He did not believe that any man could now find an animal, beast, bird, or fish that he could work into a new fable with any success; and the whole company appeared to applaud the idea, except Franklin, who was silent. The gentleman insisted on his opinion. He said, with submission to their lordships, he believed the subject was inexhaustible, and that many new and instructive fables might be made out of such materials. Can you think of any one at present? If your lordships will furnish me a pen, ink, and paper, I believe I can furnish your lordships with one in a few minutes. The paper was brought, and he sat down and wrote:

"Once upon a time an cagle scaling round a farmer's barn, and espying a hare, darted down upon him like a sunbeam, scooped him in his claws and remounted with him in the air. He soon found that he had a creature of

attachment to Lord Hillsborough, and, in a walk we were taking, told me, as a secret, that Lord Hillsborough was much chagrined at being out of place, and could never forgive me for writing that pamphlet against his Report about the Ohio. "I assured him," says Mr. Todd, "that I knew you did not write it; and the consequence is, that he thinks I know the contrary, and wanted to impose upon him in your favor; and so I find he is now displeased with me, and for no other cause in the world." His friend Bamber Gascoign, too, says, that they well know it was written by Dr. Franklin, who was one of the most mischievous men in England.

That same day Lord Hillsborough called upon Lord Le Despencer, whose chamber and mine were together in Queen's College. I was in the inner room shifting, and heard his voice, but did not see him, as he went down stairs immediately with Lord Le Despencer, who mentioning that I was above, he returned directly and came to me in the pleasantest manner imaginable. "Dr. Franklin," said he, "I did not know till this minute that you were here, and I am come back to make you my bow. I am glad to see you at Oxford, and that you look so well," &c. In return for this extravagance, I complimented him on his son's per

more courage and strength than a hare, for which, notwithstanding the keenness of his eyesight, he had mistaken a cat. The snarling and scrambling of the prey was very inconvenient, and what was worse, she had disengaged herself from his talons, grasped his body with her four limbs so as to stop his breath, and seized fast hold of his throat with her teeth. "Pray," said the eagle, "let go your hold and I will release you." "Very fine," said the cat, "I have no fancy to fall from this height and be crushed to death. You have taken me up, and you shall stoop and let me down." The eagle thought it necessary to stoop accordingly.'

"The moral was so applicable to England and America that the fable was allowed to be original, and was much applauded."-ED.

formance in the theatre, though indeed it was but indifferent, so that account was settled. For as people say, when they are angry, If he strikes me, I'll strike him again; I think sometimes it may be right to say, If he flatters me, I'll flatter him again. This is lex talionis, returning offences in kind. His son, however, (Lord Fairford,) is a valuable young man, and his daughters, Ladies Mary and Charlotte, most amiable young women. My quarrel is only with him, who, of all the men I ever met with, is surely the most unequal in his treatment of people, the most insincere, and the most wrongheaded; witness, besides his various behaviour to me, his duplicity in encouraging us to ask for more land, ask for enough to make a province (when we at first asked only for two millions five hundred thousand acres), were his words, pretending to befriend our application, then doing every thing to defeat it; and reconciling the first to the last, by saying to a friend, that he meant to defeat it from the beginning; and that his putting us upon asking so much was with that very view, supposing it too much to be granted. Thus, by the way, his mortification becomes. double. He has served us by the very means he meant to destroy us, and tripped up his own heels into the bargain.

To Samuel I see by the papers, that you continue to Danforth, daafford that public your services, which makes ted London, 25 July, 1773. me almost ashamed of my resolutions for retirement. But this exile, though an honorable one, is become grievous to me, in so long a separation from my family, friends, and country; all which you happily enjoy; and long may you continue to enjoy them. I hope for the great pleasure of once more seeing and conversing with you; and, though living on in one's children, as we both