form of a letter to Mr. Collinson in England, who published them in a separate volume, under the title of "New Experiments and Observations on Electricity, at Philadelphia, in America." They were read with avidity, and met with the cordial approbation of many learned men in Great Britain, particularly of Dr. Priestley. But while Franklin's experiments and theories were received with delight by the learned in all quarters of the globe, they met at first with nothing but contemptuous sneers from the Royal Society of London. The French philosophers however thought very differently. An imperfect translation of the letters fell into the hands of the celebrated Buffon, who repeated the experiments with success. Louis XV., hearing of these things was highly delighted with the repetition of such experiments, having been eager to witness them; nor did he fail to applaud the discoverer in flattering terms. Philosophers in other parts of Europe were thereby stimulated. Even the cold regions of Russia were penetrated by the ardour for discovery. Profes sor Richman of St. Petersburgh bade fair to add much to the stock of knowledge on the subject of electricity, when an unfortunate flash from his conductor put a period to his existence. "The friends of science," says Dr. Stuber, Franklin's townsman and one of his biographers, whom we have been following in this account, "will long remember with regret the amiable martyr to electricity."

By these experiments, Franklin's theory was established in the most convincing manner. When the truth of it could no longer be doubted, envy and vanity endeavoured to detract from its merit. That an American, an inhabitant of the obscure city of Philadelphia, the name of which was hardly known, should be able to make discoveries and to frame theories which had escaped the notice of the enlightend philosophers of Europe, was too mortifying to be admitted. However, at length the claims of the great experimenter and discoverer came to be universally acknowledged.

Besides the great principles thus brought to light, Franklin's letters on electricity contain a number of facts and hints which have contributed greatly towards reducing this branch of knowledge to a science. They have been translated into most European languages and into Latin. And in proportion as they have become known his principles have been adopted. In more recent times great advancement has been made in this field of inquiry. Still, Franklin's theory, as regards the practical benefit to be derived from employing lightening conductors, remains undisturbed.

The house, No. 141, High-street, Philadelphia, on the north side between Third and Fourth Streets, as we read in the "Annals" of that city, was originally the residence of the philosopher, and was the first house in the town which ever had a lightning rod affixed to it. This was put up by Franklin. The rod came into the bed-chamber in the second story on the gable-end, eastern side, and there, being cut off from its communication with the rod descending to the ground, the intermediate space, about one yard, was filled up with a range or chime of bells, which, whenever an electrical cloud passed over the place, was set ringing, throwing out sparks of electricity. These bells remained some time after Daniel Webster occupied the house, and were taken down to quiet the fears of his wife.

Franklin's labours in the department of physics, as indeed in every other branch or sphere, were all suggested by views of utility in the beginning, and were without exception applied to promote those views in the end. His letters upon electricity have been more extensively circulated than any of his other writings, and yet are entitled to more praise and popularity than they seem ever to have met with in England. Nothing can be more striking than the luminous and graphical precision with which the experiments are narrated, the ingenuity with which they were projected, and the sagacity with which the conclusion is inferred, limited, and confirmed.

The most remarkable thing, however, in these and indeed in the whole range of his physical speculations, is the unparalleled simplicity and facility with which the reader is conducted from one stage of the inquiry to another. The author never seems for a moment to labour or to be at a loss. The most ingenious and profound explanations are suggested as if they were the most natural and obvious way of accounting for the phenomena; and Franklin appears to value himself so little on his most important discoveries, that it is necessary to compare him with others before you can form a just notion of his merits. As he seems to be conscious of no exertion, he feels no partiality for any branch of his speculations, and never seeks to raise the reader's idea of their importance by any arts of declamation or arrogance. Indeed, the habitual precision of his conceptions, and his invariable practice of referring to specific facts and observations, secured him in a great measure both from those extravagant conjectures in which so many inquirers have indulged, and from the zeal and enthusiasm which seems to be so readily engendered in their defence. He was by no means averse to

give scope to his imagination in suggesting a variety of explanations of obscure or unmanageable phenomena; but he never allowed himself to confound those vague and conjectural theories with the solid results of experience and observation; setting little value upon them, and having no sooner disburdened his mind of the impressions from which they proceeded than he seems to dismiss them entirely from his consideration, turning to the legitimate philosophy of experiment with unabated diligence and humility.

Every one of Dr. Franklin's physical papers are admirable for the clearness of description, the felicity and familiarity of the illustrations, and the singular sagacity of the remarks with which they are interspersed. His theory of winds and water-spouts, as well as observations on the course of the winds and on cold, are truly excellent. The paper called Maritime Observations is full of ingenuity and practical good sense; and the remarks on evaporation and on tides, most of which are contained in a series of letters to a young lady, are admirable, not merely for their perspicuity, but for the interest and amusement they are calculated to communicate to every description of readers. The remarks on fire-places and smoky chimnies, are infinitely more original, concise, and scientific, than those of Count Rumford.

And yet Dr. Franklin seems never to have made use of the mathematics in his investigation of the phenomena of nature; and though this may render it surprising that he has fallen into so few errors of importance, it certainly helps in some measure to explain the unequalled perspicuity and vivacity of his expositions. An algebraist, who, can work wonders with letters and signs, seldom condescends to be much indebted to words, and thinks himself entitled to make his sentences obscure, provided his calculations be distinct. A writer who has nothing but words to make use of, must make all the use he can of them; but very few indeed, even of those who have the amplest and minutest command of language, can treat with simplicity and clearness recondite physical themes, much less infuse into abstract speculations, a continuous stream of entertaining and charming matter.

THE POLITICIAN.

About the year 1747, when Franklin, became a member of the General Assembly of Pensylvania, having been appointed as a representative burgess for the city of Philadelphia, warm disputes had arisen between

the Assembly and a class of landholders of long standing, called proprietaries, who claimed the peculiar privilege of not being subject to taxation. Franklin, an ardent friend to the principles of justice from his earliest years, and a foe to every sort of aristocratic assumption, soon rendered himself conspicuous as a steady and powerful opponent of the preposterous views and efforts of the proprietaries. Indeed, he almost immediately came to be looked up to as the leader of the opposition; and to him have been attributed many of the spirited and effective replies of the Assembly to the messages of the Governors, who were uniformly at the period indicated, in the interest of the aristocratic party. His influence in the Assembly was irresistible, and deservedly very great; not indeed, from any dazzling powers of eloquence, for he spoke but seldom, and never was known to make anything like an elaborate harangue. His speeches frequently amounted merely to a single sentence, or a well-told story, the moral of which was forcibly to the point. He never attempted any display in the flowery fields of oratory. In short, his style of speaking was like that of his writings-simple, unadorned, and remarkably concise, while his manner was unassuming and mild. With this plain-bearing, and his penetrating solid judgment, he was able to confound the most eloquent, subtle, and artful of his adversaries; to confirm and strongly buttress the views of his friends, and to achieve the conversion of the unprejudiced who had opposed him. With a single observation, he frequently rendered of no avail, an elegant, elaborate, and lengthy discourse determining at a stroke, the fate of a momentous question.

Let us now alight at the period when that last and deeply important contest commenced between Great Britain and France in America, the first effect of which was to annihilate the power of the French in this part of the globe; the next in order of importance, perhaps, being to teach America her own strength and resources, calling into actual service the very men who were afterwards the authors of her revolution, and the pillars of her independence; and lastly, by an easy and imperceptible consequence, to bring the British colonies and the mother country into collision a contest which terminated in one of the greatest events in modern history. Franklin and Washington, but especially the former, rendered themselves very conspicuous in this war.

The home-government apprehending hostility with France in 1754, felt the necessity of conciliating both the colonists and the native tribes of America. Commissioners from all the states were therefore appointed

to assemble at Albany to concert measures for their common 'defence, as well as to conclude treaties with the chiefs of the Six Nations. Our philosopher was named a deputy to this Congress; and on his route thither, being a most zealous advocate for the rights of the colonies, he projected a scheme of union, embracing the regulation of all the great political interests of the colonies and the mother country. The "Albany plan," as it was called, after it was adopted by the congress, proposed a general government for the provinces, to be administered by a president appointed by the crown, and a general council, chosen by the provincial assembly; the council to be empowered to levy taxes for all the common exigencies. The plan, though unanimously sanctioned by the Congress, was rejected by the Board of Trade as savouring too much of the democratic, in the estimation of the Home Government; while, curiously enough, it was rejected by the Colonial Assemblies, as giving too large an increase to the royal prerogative. The crown, on the one hand, was evidently jealous of the appearance of union and independent strength which had already been exhibited in the American States; while, on the other, the conduct of the Assemblies clearly indicated a step in the progress to an inevitable result-that of American independence.

Franklin, in the capacity of Postmaster-General, advanced large sums of money to General Braddock, the result of whose unfortunate and illconducted expedition he foresaw, and in regard to which he made some fruitless suggestions to that self-willed and over-confident commander.

After the defeat of Braddock, Franklin introduced a bill for establishing a volunteer militia; and having received a commission as a commander, he raised a corps of 560, and went through a laborious campaign. During this service, having occasion to remark that when men are employed they are best contented, while on idle days his people were continually grumbling, he was induced to act in the spirit of the sea captain, whose rule it was to keep his sailors constantly to work; so that when one of the mates told him that the men had done every thing, and there was nothing further to employ them about. "Oh!" said the captain, "make them scour the anchors."

"We had," the humorous and kind-hearted philosopher tell us," a zealous Presbyterian minister for chaplain, who complained to me that the men did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. When