care, as what remains in our hands will be barely sufficient for our support, and not enough for them when it comes to be divided at our decease."

Soon after came intelligence that Mr. Bache had been unfortunate in business. This misfortune, wrote Dr. Franklin, "though it may not lessen his character as an honest or a prudent man, will probably induce him to forbear entering hastily into a state, that must require a great addition to his expense, when he will be less able to supply it. If you think that, in the mean time, it will be some amusement to Sally to visit her friends here, and return with me, I should have no objection to her coming over with Captain Falconer, provided Mrs. Falconer comes at the same time, as is talked of. I think, too, it might be some improvement to her."

But she came not. October 29th, 1767, Mr. Richard Bache and Miss Sarah Franklin were married at Philadelphia. The lady was then twenty-three years of age, and, as her portrait testifies, a woman superbly beautiful.

Dr. Franklin did not see his son-in-law until 1771, when he came to England in the hope of procuring through Franklin's influence, a government appointment. Dr. Franklin could not then ask a favor of the ministry, and advised Mr. Bache to embark his capital in a stock of merchandise, return to Philadelphia, and open a store. This advice was taken, and Franklin gave his son-in-law two hundred pounds with which to augment his supply. "I am of opinion," wrote Franklin to his daughter on this occasion, "that almost any profession a man has been educated in is preferable to an office held at pleasure, as rendering him more independent, more a free man, and less subject to the caprices of superiors; and I think that, in keeping a store, if it be where you dwell, you can be serviceable to him, as your mother was to me; for you are not deficient in capacity, and I hope you are not too proud. You might easily learn accounts, and you can copy letters, or write them very well upon occasion. By industry and frugality you may get forward in the world, being both of you yet young; and then what we may leave you at our death, will be a pretty addition, though of itself far from sufficient to maintain and bring up a family."

The young couple lived with Mrs. Franklin during the first eight years of their union. Their son, Benjamin Franklin Bache, after

wards so noted in the political strifes of Jefferson's day, and the father of sons still distinguished, was the solace of Mrs. Franklin's life in her husband's absence. She filled her letters with his prattle. Her husband commended her for not spoiling the child, as fond grandmothers sometimes do. "I see," he once wrote to her, "that your happiness is wrapped up in his; since your whole long letter is made up of the history of his pretty actions. It was very prudently done of you not to interfere when his mother thought fit to correct him; which pleased me the more, as I feared, from your fondness of him, that he would be too much humored, and perhaps spoiled. There is a story of two little boys in the street; one was crying bitterly; the other came to him to ask what was the matter; I have been,' says he, 'for a pennyworth of vinegar, and I have broke the glass and spilled the vinegar, and my mother will whip me.' 'No, she won't whip you,' says the other. 'Indeed she will,' says he. What,' says the other, 'have you then got ne'er a grandmother?" "

Other children were born to them, all of whom were noted in Philadelphia for their robust beauty. One of them still (in 1862) survives. The descendants of Richard Bache and Sarah Franklin now number one hundred and ten, of whom ten are serving in the Union army, not one in the ranks of treason.

Let me by no means forget to mention that Mrs. Franklin kept her husband supplied with American dainties, such as Indian meal, cranberries, apples, dried peaches, dried fish, hickory nuts, and the raw material of buckwheat cakes. "Since I cannot be in America," he would write "every thing that comes from thence comforts me a little, as being something like home." Few captains sailed from Philadelphia for England who were not charged with parcels and hampers of home products, to be delivered at No. 7 Craven Street, Strand. A neat little note found among Franklin's papers, shows that the supply sometimes exceeded the Craven Street demand: "Dr. Franklin presents his respectful compliments to Lord Bathurst, with some American nuts; and to Lady Bathurst, with some American apples; which he prays they will accept as a tribute from that country, small indeed, but voluntary."

A strange occurrence brought to the mind of Franklin, in 1771, a vivid recollection of his childhood. A dealer in old books, whose shop he sometimes visited, called his attention one day to a collec

tion of pamphlets, bound in thirty volumes, dating from the Restoration to 1715. The dealer offered them to Franklin, as he said, because many of the subjects of the pamphlets were such as usually interested him. Upon examining the collection, he found that one of the blank leaves of each volume contained a catalogue of its contents, and the price each pamphlet had cost; there were notes and comments also in the margin of several of the pieces. A closer scrutiny revealed that the handwriting was that of his Uncle Benjamin, the rhyming friend and counselor of his childhood. Other circumstances combined with this surprising fact to prove that the collection had been made by his uncle, who had probably sold it when he emigrated to America, fifty-six years before. Franklin bought the volumes, and gave an account of the circumstance to his Uncle Benjamin's son, who still lived and flourished in Boston. "The oddity is," he wrote, "that the bookseller, who could suspect nothing of any relation between me and the collector, should happen to make me the offer of them."

During this ten years' exile in England, we find Franklin still exerting his talents in the way of practical philanthropy and patriotism. If he visited a hospital, he thought of the hospital in Philadelphia, which he had helped to found, and sent over to the managers any rules, papers, or suggestions which he thought they might find useful. When one of the managers sent him word that they had resolved to begin the formation of a medical library in the hospital, he sent them the only medical book he possessed, and solicited donations of similar works from his medical friends. The silk culture he labored to promote in Pennsylvania, by sending over masses of information on the subject, and urging it as a branch of industry, profitable in itself, and not offensive to the English government, since silk was not an article produced in England. A company of silk growers was formed in the province, and Franklin had soon the pleasure of presenting to the queen, through Sir John Pringle, a sample of American silk, which she not only accepted, but wore in the form of a dress. He acknowledged the obligation in his politest manner, in a note to Sir John Pringle: "Dr. Franklin is very happy to learn that the Queen has graciously condescended to accept the silk with the purpose of wearing it. Her Majesty's countenance so afforded to the raisers of silk in Pennsylvania, where her character is highly revered, will give them great encouragement to pro

ceed in a measure, which the British Parliament seems to have had much at heart, the procuring a supply of that valuable article from our colonies, for which at present large sums are paid to France, Spain, Italy, and the Indies."

For Harvard College he procured, in 1769, a telescope, at the request of the trustees, as well as other instruments for the use of the astronomical professor. The acquisition of the telescope, which cost one hundred guineas, was a considerable event in the history of the college. To the library of Harvard he sent an occasional parcel of books, his own gift, or presented by some of his friends to the rising college of the New World. For his friend and correspondent, the Rev. Samuel Cooper, a distinguished clergyman of Boston, and a steadfast patriot, he procured from the university of Edinburgh the honorary title of doctor of divinity; a great distinction in those simple old days, particularly in the colonies. Young gentlemen from America who came to England for episcopal ordination, or to study law, or on other errands of duty or pleasure, usually brought letters of introduction to Dr. Franklin, who gave them hearty welcome and hospitality. It is pleasing to note in his letters how careful he was to bestow upon the parents of such youths the sweet cordial of a laudatory or hopeful mention of their sons.

In 1771 a noble dream of benevolence was originated in the circle frequented by Dr. Franklin. Lieutenant Cook, in June of that year, returned to England in the ship Endeavor, from his first voyage round the world. His discoveries, which opened the wondrous realm of the Pacific to the contemplation of Europe, were the theme of every tongue. Prompt promotion, liberal appointments, and universal celebrity rewarded the adventurous son of a Yorkshire farm laborer. Captain Cook and New Zealand becoming the topic of discourse, one evening, at a learned club to which Dr. Franklin belonged, the conversation took, at length, a practical turn, which led to the scheme just referred to. The Pacific islands, said one gentleman, were inhabited by a brave and generous race who were destitute of corn, fowls, and all quadrupeds except dogs; was it not incumbent on such a nation as England to send to them the seeds, the domestic animals, the metals, the inventions, the conveniences, most of which England herself had derived from other lands, and which had become so essential to her welfare? Capti