ly charmed with, the sentiments being delightfully just, and expressed with such force and clearness, that I am persuaded the pamphlet, though small, must have a great effect on the minds of both princes and people, and thence be productive of much good to mankind. Be pleased to accept my hearty thanks for both. It is right to be sowing good seed whenever we have an opportunity, since some of it may be productive. An instance of this you should be acquainted with, as it may afford you pleasure. The reading of Fortuné Ricard's Testament, has put it into the head and heart of a citizen to leave two thousand pounds sterling to two American cities, who are to lend it in small sums at five per cent to young beginners in business; and the accumulation, after a hundred years, to be laid out in public works of benefit to those cities.* With great esteem, I have the honor to be, Sir, &c. B. FRANKLIN. TO EDWARD BANCROFT. Proposed new Edition of Dr. Franklin's Writings. DEAR SIR, Philadelphia, 26 November, 1785. I received your kind letter of September 5th, informing me of the intention Mr. Dilly has of printing a new edition of my writings, and of his desire, that I would furnish him with such additions as I may think proper. At present all my papers and manuscripts are so mixed with other things, by the confusions occasioned in sudden and various removals during the late troubles, that I can hardly find any thing. But, having nearly finished an addition to my house, which will af * See Dr. Franklin's Will. ford me room to put all in order, I hope soon to be able to comply with such a request; but I hope Mr. Dilly will have a good understanding in the affair with Henry and Johnson, who, having risked the former impressions, may suppose they thereby acquired some right in the copy. As to the Life proposed to be written, if it be by the same hand who furnished a sketch to Dr. Lettsom, which he sent me, I am afraid it will be found too full of errors for either you or me to correct; and, having been persuaded by my friends, Messrs. Vaughan and M. Le Veillard, Mr. James of this place, and some others, that such a Life, written by myself, may be useful to the rising generation, I have made some progress in it, and hope to finish it this winter; so I cannot but wish that project of Mr. Dilly's biographer may be laid aside. I am nevertheless thankful to you for your friendly offer of correcting it. As to public affairs, it is long since I gave over all expectations of a commercial treaty between us and Britain; and I think we can do as well, or better, without one than she can. Our harvests are plenty, our produce fetches a high price in hard money, and there are in every part of our country incontestable marks of public felicity. We discover, indeed, some errors in our general and particular constitutions; which it is no wonder they should have, the time in which they were formed being considered. But these we shall soon mend. The little disorders you have heard of in some of the States, raised by a few wrong heads, are subsiding, and will probably soon be extinguished. My best wishes, and those of my family, attend you. We shall be happy to see you here, when it suits you to visit us; being with sincere and great esteem, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, VOL. X. 16 B. FRANKLIN. FROM JONATHAN SHIPLEY, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH, TO B. FRANKLIN. MY DEAR FRIEND, Twyford, 27 November, 1785. I felt myself much obliged to your worthy nephew, Mr. Williams, for the account of your safe arrival, and very honorable reception at Philadelphia. Our last short interview at Southampton was so much in mixed company, and your hours were so entirely taken up with the final business of leaving this ungrateful country, that I hardly found a single opportunity for the confidential information, to which our old friendship seemed to entitle us, and I on my part was very ready to give. But, to own the truth, I had but little curiosity to know the particulars of your negotiations with either the French or the English ministers. The event has shown, that, in their own arts, you were not inferior to the ablest of them. I had much rather hear from you, with what prudence and success your countrymen proceed in reviving and establishing that civil liberty, which is extinguished everywhere else. Sure there never was opened so fine a field for making experiments and improvements in the philosophy of government, which I take to be the noblest species of philosophy that can exercise the mind of man. But your great blessing is, that he, who is best able to serve his country, is sure of being rewarded. Make the most of the golden opportunity. It has seldom lasted long. I live in a very different scene, where the most unprofitable and perhaps the most dangerous part a man can act, is, to mention the faults or propose any amendment in our corrupt and shattered frame of government. Yet I feel every day more reason to be pleased with the part I myself have acted. But whether you had rather give us only an account of your domestic circumstances, which I think must necessarily be happy, I fancy you will give me credit for saying, that nobody will be more warmly interested in what concerns you, than the part of my family you saw at Southampton. Mrs. Shipley and her daughter Kitty, in their passion for you, rival Georgiana. They agree with me in interesting ourselves for all the worthy family party we met with you. I wish your nephew, and my old friend, Mr. Williams, success in all his future views. He can hardly undertake any business for which he is unqualified. Your Your promising grandson, who has the courage to tread in your early steps, I hope, will preserve the same generous emulation through his life. Few professions are in my eyes more respectable, than the character of a printer, who excels in his art. Aldus and Stephens stand high as men of letters, and made their learning and criticism subservient to their business. Let me hope, that you will sometimes remember, amidst the applauses of your countrymen, that there is a family in England, who love you as well as your Your ever affectionate own. J. ST. ASAPH. TO JAMES BOWDOIN. Dr. Jeffries's Aerial Voyage from England to France. MY DEAR FRIEND, Philadelphia, 1 January, 1786. It gave me great pleasure to receive your kind letter of congratulation, as it proved, that all my old friends in Boston were not estranged from me by the malevolent misrepresentations of my conduct, that had been circulated there, but that one of the most esteemed still retained a regard for me. Indeed, you are now almost the only one left me by nature; death having, since we were last together, deprived me of my dear Cooper, Winthrop, and Quincy. I have not received the letter you mention to have sent me with some Memoirs, under cover to Dr. Price. I must have left Europe before they got to his hands; but he will doubtless send them to me by the first convenient opportunity. It was not necessary to make any apology for the liberty you say you have taken in those Memoirs, in making observations on my Queries upon light, for I am sure they will help me to understand it better, and that must make them agreeable to me. I shall be glad to see the whole volume,* which you are so kind as to promise me; and I hope in the course of a few months to be able to make returns, in a second volume of our Memoirs,† now in the press. I sent to you by Mr. Gerry, some weeks since, Dr. Jeffries's account of his aërial voyage from England to France, which I received from him just before I left that country. In his letter, that came with it, he requests I would not suffer it to be printed, because a copy of it had been put into the hands of Sir Joseph Banks for the Royal Society, and was to be read there in November. If they should not think fit to publish it, as I apprehend may be the case, they having hitherto avoided meddling with the subject of balloons, I shall be glad to have the minutes returned to me. In the mean time, I thought it might afford some * First volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. + Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. |