ory, that, did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I should choose to spend the remainder of my days in."

Scotland was then a pleasant land to an Englishman whose claim to distinction was other than rank and wealth. That overshadowing aristocracy which in London reduced every kind of merit to the second place, was not so absolutely supreme in Edinburgh. Probably there were few Scotchmen who, in the actual presence of a duke or marquis, could have felt the possibly superior rank in the scale of being of a Glasgow professor. But there were not many dukes or marquises in Scotland, and in the absence of those crushing titles, such men as Hume and Adam Smith enjoyed very considerable honor. Indeed, rank itself in Scotland paid practical homage to the magnates of the mind. The guardian of the duke of Buccleugh, happily for mankind, thought proper to purchase for his ward the company and conversation of Adam Smith for three years, at the price of a competent income for the remainder of the philosopher's life; and to the leisure thus earned, we owe the Wealth of Nations, the fruit of nine years' meditation and research. Nowhere in Europe was there more activity of mind, a more general interest in the affairs of the intellect, than in Scotland during the latter half of the last century. Edinburgh was also noted at that time for the informal heartiness and jollity of its social entertainments. Its clubs were not unlike the Philadelphia Junto—a blending of the learned and the jovial, the merry and the wise.

Amid this holiday life, Franklin's heart was, after all, at his Philadelphia home. "The regard and friendship," he wrote to his wife, "I meet with from persons of worth, and the conversation of ingenious men, give me no small pleasure; but, at this time of life, domestic comforts afford the most solid satisfaction, and my uneasiness at being absent from my family, and longing desire to be with them, make me often sigh in the midst of cheerful company." Gifts in great number he sent out to embellish his house and adorn his wife and daughter. One catalogue of presents sent by a friendly captain, has a certain historical as well as biographical value; it both illustrates Franklin's thoughtful goodness, and shows the kind of articles which liberal husbands, a hundred years ago, were accustomed to send to their wives from "home."

The catalogue will interest ladies, at least: "I send you some

English china: viz., melons and leaves for a dessert of fruit and cream, or the like; a bowl remarkable for the neatness of the figures, made at Bow, near this city; some coffee cups of the same; a Worcester bowl, ordinary. To show the difference of workmanship, there is something from all the china works in England; and one old true china bason mended, of an odd color. The same box contains four silver salt ladles, newest, but ugliest fashion; a little instrument to core apples; another to make little turnips out of great ones; six coarse diaper breakfast cloths; they are to spread on the tea table, for nobody breakfasts here on the naked table, but on the cloth they set a large tea board with the cups. There is also a little basket, a present from Mrs. Stevenson to Sally, and a pair of garters for you, which were knit by the young lady, her daughter, who favored me with a pair of the same kind, the only ones I have been able to wear, as they need not be bound tight, the ridges in them preventing their slipping. We send them therefore as a curiosity for the form, more than for the value. Goody Smith may, if she pleases, make such for me hereafter. My love to her.

"In the great case, besides the little box, is contained some carpeting for the best room floor. There is enough for one large or two small ones; it is to be sewed together, the edges being first felled down, and care taken to make the figures meet exactly; there is bordering for the same. This was my fancy. Also two large fine Flanders bedticks, and two pair of large superfine blankets, two fine damask tablecloths and napkins, and forty-three ells of Ghentish sheeting Holland. These you ordered. There are also fifty-six yards of cotton, printed curiously from copper plates, a new invention, to make bed and window curtains; and seven yards of chair bottoms, printed in the same way, very neat. These were my

fancy; but Mrs. Stevenson tells me I did wrong not to buy both of the same color. Also seven yards of printed cotton, blue ground, to make you a gown. I bought it by candlelight, and liked it then, but not so well afterwards. If you do not fancy it, send it as a present from me to sister Jenny. There is a better gown for you, of flowered tissue, sixteen yards, of Mrs. Stevenson's fancy, cost nine guineas; and I think it a great beauty. There was no moro of the sort, or you should have had enough for a negligée or suit. "There are also snuffers, a snuffstand, and extinguisher, of steel, which I send for the beauty of the work. The extinguisher is for

spermaceti candles only, and is of a new contrivance, to preserve the snuff upon the candle. There is some music Billy bought for his sister, and some pamphlets for the Speaker and for Susy Wright. A mahogany and a little shagreen box, with microscopes and other optical instruments loose, are for Mr. Alison, if he likes them; if not, put them in my room till I return. I send the invoice of them, and I wrote to him formerly the reason of my exceeding his orders. There are also two sets of books, a present from me to Sally, The World and The Connoisseur. My love to her.

"I forgot to mention another of my fancyings, viz., a pair of silk blankets, very fine. They are of a new kind, were just taken in a French prize, and such were never seen in England before. They are called blankets, but I think they will be very neat to cover a summer bed, instead of a quilt or counterpane. I had no choice, so you will excuse the soil on some of the folds; your neighbor Foster can get it off. I also forgot, among the china, to mention a large fine jug for beer, to stand in the cooler. I fell in love with it at first sight; for I thought it looked like a fat jolly dame, clean and tidy, with a neat blue and white calico gown on, good natured and lovely, and put me in mind of—somebody. It has the coffee cups in it, packed in best crystal salt, of a peculiar nice flavor, for the table, not to be powdered."

This is all pleasantly old-fashioned and kind. Reading it is like going over a house of the last century, preserved, by chance, unchanged. In the same letter he "Mrs. Stevenson is very says: diligent when I am in any way indisposed; but yet I have a thou sand times wished you with me, and my little Sally, with her ready hands and feet, to do, and go, and come, and get what I wanted." And he tells his little Sally to be diligent with her French, to amend her spelling, to go regularly to church, to read over again the Whole Duty of Man, and the Lady's Library. In another letter to his wife, he writes: "I have ordered two large print Common Prayer Books to be bound, on purpose for you and Goody Smith and, that the largeness of the print may not make them too bulky, the christenings, matrimonies, and every thing else that you and she have not immediate and constant occasion for, are to be omitted. So you will both of you be reprieved from the use of spectacles in church a little longer."

Mrs. Franklin, on her part, wrote so frequently, that Franklin

declared no man before was ever blessed with so punctual a correspondent, and it was of no use for him to try to keep even with her. She sent him over a curious piece of intelligence in 1758: that a rumor was spread all over the colonies of his having been made a Baronet, and Governor of Pennsylvania. Jane Mecom, of Boston, having heard the bewildering news, wrote a distracted letter of congratulation to Mrs. Franklin, beginning thus: "Dear Sister: For so I must call you, come what will, and if I do not express myself proper, you must excuse it, seeing I have not been accustomed to pay my compliments to Governor and Baronets' ladies. I am in the midst of a great wash, and Sarah still sick, and would gladly be excused writing this post, but my husband says I must write, and give you joy, which we heartily join in."* The good soul ends by declaring herself "your ladyship's affectionate sister, and obedient humble servant."

Though this rumor proved false, Mrs. Franklin had proof enough that her husband was well esteemed in England. Mr. Strahan wrote to her, entreating her to join her husband, that both might end their days in London, and he enjoy still the charm of her husband's conversation. He said he had formed a high opinion of Mr. Franklin from his letters and his reputation, but the man himself far surpassed his expectation. "For my own part," he added, "I never saw a man who was, in every respect, so perfectly agreeable to me. Some are amiable in one view, some in another, he in all." Mr. Strahan had other hopes, which he delicately hinted. "Your son," he continued, "I really think one of the prettiest young gentlemen I ever knew from America. He seems to me to have a solidity of judgment, not very often to be met with in one of his years. This, with the daily opportunities he has of improving himself in the company of his father, who is at the same time his friend, his brother, his intimate and easy companion, affords an agreeable prospect that your husband's virtues and usefulness to his country, may be prolonged beyond the date of his own life. Your daughter (I wish I could call her mine) I find by the reports of all who know her, is a very amiable girl in all respects; but of her I shall say nothing, till I have the pleasure of seeing her. Only I must observe to you, that being the mistress of such a family is a

* Letters to Franklin, p. 188.

degree of happiness, perhaps, the greatest that falls to the lot of humanity." In a later epistle, Mr. Strahan made a formal request of the hand of Miss Franklin for his son.

Mrs. Franklin was unmoved by these letters, as her husband told Mr. Strahan she would be. "Mr. Strahan," he wrote, "has offered to lay me a considerable wager, that a letter he has wrote to you, will bring you immediately over hither; but I tell him I will not pick his pocket; for I am sure there is no inducement strong enough to prevail with you to cross the seas."

So passed three years of Franklin's residence in England, the tedium of delay being alleviated by congenial society, experiments in natural philosophy, music, the theater, and annual excursions into the country. In the summer of 1760 the cause he had come to promote was ripe for adjudication.

CHAPTER VII.

RESULT OF THE APPEAL TO THE KING.

FRANKLIN'S Success in London was only partial. The project, half-formed, of inducing the king to convert Pennsylvania into a royal province, like Virginia or New York, was abandoned for the time. Franklin was assured that such a change, without the consent of the proprietaries, would be extremely difficult, and, probably, impossible. He confined his attention, therefore, to the gaining of two points, the equal taxation of the proprietary estates, and the deliverance of the Assembly from the tyranny of proprietary instructions. His work was all up hill. The appeal lay to men who owed their consequence in the world to the prevalence of principles similar to those upon which the brothers Penn founded their claim to misgovern Pennsylvania. Thomas and Richard Penn were fighting the battle of prerogative, which was the king's cause as well as their own. So, at least, their counsel took care to insinuate, in their papers and pleadings.

Lord Stirling, an American, who happened to be in London, in