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 says: "Mrs. Stevenson is very 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 inade 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

the spring of 1758, probably expressed the general feeling with regard to the controversy when he wrote: "As to the affairs of Pennsylvania, the Assembly have, for many years, been demanding unreasonable concessions from the proprietaries. They, on the other hand, have as constantly refused them." Result-excitement and confusion. "The Assembly, on their part, have sent home Mr. Franklin to represent what they call their grievances."* If a native American could take this view of a dispute with which he had had the opportunity to become acquainted, we cannot be surprised that similar impressions should prevail in England, where few persons knew any thing of the matter.

After the departure of Franklin from Philadelphia in 1757, the strife between Governor Denny and the Assembly became more violent than ever; the assuaging influence of Franklin's good sense and good temper being no longer exerted. The same Lord Stirling tells us: "While the proprietaries had men of sense and virtue for their governors, and while Franklin was at the head of the Assembly, they were kept within bounds; but since they have had a governor who is worse than a fool, and since Franklin has been on this side of the water, they are grown frantic."

Governor Denny, like so many governors before him, was soon tired of the struggle, and gave his consent, early in 1758, to certain laws which were contrary to his instructions; laws which taxed equally the entire landed property of the province, and laws which assumed that the Assembly was the proper judge of the needs and requirements of the people it represented. The instant this intelligence reached London the proprietaries resolved to remove the governor. They proceeded with the secrecy congenial to men of their calibre. Franklin discovered the secret, however, and took a most effectual method to give it currency in Pennsylvania. He wrote to his wife: "It was to have been kept a secret from me that the proprietors were looking out for a new governor; because they would not have Mr. Denny know any thing about it till the appointment was actually made, and the gentleman ready to embark. So you may make a secret of it too, if you please, and oblige all your friends with it."*

A new governor was appointed, Mr. James Hamilton, a native of Philadelphia, who was less trammeled with instructions than

* Duer's Life of Lord Stirling, p. 16.

any of his predecessors. With regard to the great question of taxing the Penn estate, Governor Hamilton was thus instructed: "We recommend to you to use the most prudent means in your power to avoid and prevent the Assembly from including any part of our estate in the said province in any tax to be by them raised. But, in case the exigency of the times, the king's immediate service, and the defense of the province cannot be provided for, unless our estate shall be included in any bill for raising taxes for such services; then we do, notwithstanding our general dislike of the same, permit you to give your assent to such a bill as shall impose a tax on our rents and quit-rents only, but not on our vacant lands, whether appropriated or not, nor on any fines or purchase money pretended or supposed to be due to us, which, we are well advised, are not in their nature liable to taxation; always provided, that our rents and quit-rents are clear and certain in their amount, that proper and reasonable clauses be inserted in every such bill for rendering as clear and certain as possible the true value of all other persons' estates, that we may not be taxed beyond our true proportion with respect to others. And provided also, that our respective tenants be obliged to pay the same, and to deduct the same out of our rents, when they account to us or our receiver, and not to pretend to authorize the sale of any of our lands for non-payment of taxes."

Such men offend by their very concessions, and disgust by their generosity. These instructions, besides revealing a begrudging, suspicious spirit, still claimed exemption for countless millions of acres, surveyed and unsurveyed, but all yielding the annual revenue of an increased value.

Both Governor Hamilton and Governor Denny gave their signature to laws to which the proprietaries were opposed, and which they determined, if possible, to have repealed by the king. The royal charter, be it observed, required that all laws passed by the Assembly and signed by the Governor, should be sent to England for the royal approval.

In the spring of 1760, nineteen acts of the Pennsylvania legislature, passed in 1758 and 1759, had accumulated on the table of the King's Council Chamber. To several of these acts no objection was urged by either side. Eleven of them were opposed by the proprietaries; but, as is usual in such cases, there was one leading