you go on advancing to my sister the amount of it, as I am persuaded she cannot well do without it. She has, indeed, been very unfortunate in her children.* I am glad to hear, that, as soon as the weather permits, the tomb will receive a thorough repair. Your kind care in this matter will greatly oblige your affectionate uncle.

liams, dated London, 5 March, 1771.

Josiah is very happily em-
And as you hinted to me,

To Mrs. Wil- I received your kind letter by your sons. They are, I assure you, exceeding welcome to me; and they behave with so much prudence, that no two young men could possibly less need the advice you would have me give them. ployed in his musical pursuits. that it would be agreeable to you, if I employed Jonathan in writing, I requested him to put my accounts in order, which had been much neglected. He undertook it with the utmost cheerfulness and readiness, and executed it with the greatest diligence, making me a complete new set of books, fairly written out and settled in a mercantile manner, which is a great satisfaction to me, and a very considerable service. I mention this, that you may not be in the least uneasy from an apprehension of their visit being burdensome to me; it being, I assure you, quite the contrary.

It has been wonderful to me to see a young man from America, in a place so full of various amusements as London is, as attentive to business, as diligent in it, and keep

Mrs. Jane Mecom, the youngest and favorite sister of Dr. Franklin, was married at fifteen to Edward Mecom, by whom she had twelve children, but was early left a widow and in destitute circumstances. Her wants were generously provided for by her brother, whom she survived about four years. The youngest of seventeen children, she was the last that died.-ED.

ing as close at home till it was finished, as if it had been for his own profit; and as if he had been at the public diversions so often, as to be tired of them.

I pray God to keep and preserve you, and give you again, in due time, a happy sight of these valuable sons.

To William Franklin, dated London, 20 April, 1771.

It is long since I have heard from you. The last packet brought me no letter, and there are two packets now due. It is supposed that the long easterly winds have kept them back. We have had a severe and tedious winter. There is not yet the smallest appearance of spring. Not a bud has pushed out, nor a blade of grass. The turnips, that used to feed the cattle, have been destroyed by the frost. The hay in most parts of the country is gone, and the cattle perishing for want, the lambs dying by thousands through cold and scanty nourishment. On Tuesday last I went to dine at our friend Sir Matthew Featherstone's through a heavy storm of snow. His windows, you know, look into the park. Towards evening, I observed the snow still lying over all the park, for the ground was before too cold to thaw, it being itself frozen, and ice in the canal. You cannot imagine a more winterlike prospect. Sir Matthew and Lady Featherstone always inquire kindly of your welfare, as do Mr. and Mrs. Sargent.

Sir John Pringle has heard from Mr. Bowman of your kindness to that gentleman, and desires I would present his particular acknowledgments for the attention you have paid to his recommendation. The Ohio affair seems now near a conclusion, and, if the present ministry stand a little longer, I think it will be completed to our satisfaction. Mr. Wharton has been indefatigable, and I think scarce any one I

know besides would have been equal to the task, so difficult it is to get business forward here, in which some party purpose is not to be served. But he is always among them, and leaves no stone unturned.

I have attended several times this winter upon your acts of Assembly. The Board are not favorably disposed towards your insolvent acts, pretending to doubt whether distant creditors, particularly such as reside in England, may not sometimes be injured by them. I have had a good deal of conversation with Mr. Jackson about them, who remarks, that, whatever care the Assembly may, according to my representation of their practice, take in examining into the cases to prevent injustice, yet upon the face of the acts nothing of that care appears. The preambles only say, that such and such persons have petitioned and set forth the hardship of their imprisonment, but not a word of the Assembly's having inquired into the allegations contained. in such petitions and found them true; not a word of the general consent of the principal creditors, or of any public notice given of the debtor's intention to apply for such an act; all which, he thinks, should appear in the preambles. And then those acts would be subject to less objection and difficulty in getting them through the offices here. I would have you communicate this to the Speaker of the Assembly, with my best respects. I doubt some of those acts will be repealed. Nothing has been done, or is now likely to be done, by the Parliament, in American affairs. The House of Commons and the city of London are got into a violent controversy, that seems at present to engross the public attention, and the session cannot continue much longer.

By this ship I send the picture, that you left with Meyer. He has never yet finished the miniatures. The other pic

tures I send with it are for my own house, but this you may

take to yours.

To the Committee of Correspondence in Massachu

setts, dated

London,

May, 1771.

15

I think one may clearly see, in the system of customs to be exacted in America by act of Parliament, the seeds sown of a total disunion of the two countries, though, as yet, that event may be at a considerable distance. The course and natural progress seems to be, first, the appointment of needy men as officers, for others do not care to leave England; then, their necessities make them rapacious, their office makes them proud and insolent, their insolence and rapacity make them odious, and, being conscious that they are hated, they become malicious; their malice urges them to a continual abuse of the inhabitants in their letters to

administration, representing them as disaffected and rebellious, and (to encourage the use of severity) as weak, divided, timid, and cowardly. Government believes all; thinks it necessary to support and countenance its officers; their quarreling with the people is deemed a mark and consequence of their fidelity; they are therefore more highly rewarded, and this makes their conduct still more insolent and provoking.

The resentment of the people will, at times and on particular incidents, burst into outrages and violence upon such officers, and this naturally draws down severity and acts of further oppression from hence. The more the people are dissatisfied, the more rigor will be thought necessary; severe punishments will be inflicted to terrify; rights and privi

The members of this committee were Thomas Cushing, James Otis, and Samuel Adams.-S.

VOL. II.-8

leges will be abolished; greater force will then be required to secure execution and submission; the expense will become enormous; it will then be thought proper, by fresh exactions, to make the people defray it; thence, the British nation and government will become odious, the subjection. to it will be deemed no longer tolerable; war ensues, and the bloody struggle will end in absolute slavery to America, or ruin to Britain by the loss of her colonies; the latter most probable, from America's growing strength and magnitude.

But, as the whole empire must, in either case, be greatly weakened, I cannot but wish to see much patience and the utmost discretion in our general conduct, that the fatal period may be postponed, and that, whenever this catastrophe shall happen, it may appear to all mankind, that the fault has not been ours. And, since the collection of these duties has already cost Britain infinitely more, in the loss of commerce, than they amount to, and that loss is likely to continue and increase by the encouragement given to our manufactures through resentment; and since the best pretence for establishing and enforcing the duties is the regulation of trade for the general advantage, it seems to me, that it would be much better for Britain to give them up, on condition of the colonies undertaking to enforce and collect such, as are thought fit to be continued, by laws of their own, and officers of their own appointment, for the public uses of their respective governments. This would alone destroy those seeds of disunion, and both countries. might thence much longer continue to grow great together, more secure by their united strength, and more formidable to their common enemies. But the power of appointing friends and dependents to profitable offices is too pleasing to most administrations, to be easily parted with or lessened;