continuance of his existence, and with which few years more of experience will not be business often interferes. I have been en- amiss. In the mean time, if they should think gaged in public affairs, and enjoyed public fit to employ him as a secretary, to their confidence in some shape or other, during the minister at any European court, I am perlong term of fifty years, an honour sufficient suaded they will have reason to be satisfied to satisfy any reasonable ambition, and I have with his conduct, and I shall be thankful for no other left but that of repose, which I hope his appointment as a favour to me. the congress will grant me, by sending some person to supply my place. "At the same time I beg they may be assured, that it is not any the least doubt of their success in the glorious cause, nor any disgust received in their service, that induces me to decline it, but purely and simply the reasons abovementioned. And as I cannot at present undergo the fatigues of a sea voyage (the last having been almost too much for me) and would not again expose myself to the hazard of capture and imprisonment in this time of war, I purpose to remain here at least till the peace, perhaps it may be for the remainder of my life; and if any knowledge or experience I have acquired here, may thought of use to my successor, I shall freely communicate it, and assist him with any influence I may be supposed to have, or counsel that may be desired of me. be "My accounts have been long ready for the examination of some persons to be appointed for that purpose, Mr. Johnson having declined it, and Mr. Dana residing at present at Paris, I requested him to undertake it, and to examine at the same time, those of Mr. Deane; but he also declines it, as being unacquainted with accounts. "If no fresh appointment has been made by congress, I think of desiring Mr. Palfrey to perform that service, when he arrives, which I hope will be approved, for I am uneasy at the delay. B. FRANKLIN." duct. We ought always to do what appears best to be done, without much regarding what others may think of it. I call this continuance an honour, and I really esteem it to be greater than my first appointment, when I consider that all the interest of my enemies, united with my own request, were not sufficient to prevent it." "August 24, 1781. "The congress have done me the and insist on my continuing in their service honour to refuse accepting my resignation, till the peace. I must therefore buckle again to the business, and thank God that my health I have one request more to make, which and spirits are of late improved. I fancy it if I have served the congress to their satisfac- may have been a double mortification to those tion, I hope they will not refuse me. It is enemies you have mentioned to me, that I that they will take under their protection my me by taking from me; and that I should should ask as a favour what they hoped to vex grandson, William Temple Franklin: I have educated him from his infancy, and I brought nevertheless be continued. But these sort of him over with an intention of placing him considerations should never influence our conwhere he might be qualified for the profession of the law: but the constant occasion I had for his service as a private secretary during the time of the commissioners, and more extensively since their departure, has induced me to keep him always with me, and indeed being continually disappointed of the secretary, congress had at different times intended me, it would have been impossible for me, without this young gentleman's assistance, to have gone through the business incumbent on me. He has thereby lost so much of the time necessary for law studies, that I think it rather advisable for him to continue, if it may be, in the line of public foreign affairs, for which he seems qualified by a sagacity and judgment above his years. Great diligence and activity, exact probity, a genteel address, a facility in speaking well the French tongue, of an arch is very pretty, tending to make and all the knowledge of business to be ob- me content with my situation. But I suptained by a four years' constant employment, pose you have heard our story of the harrow: m the secretary's office, where he may be if not, here it is. A farmer in our country said to have served a kind of apprenticeship. sent two of his servants to borrow one of a After all the allowance I am capable of neighbour, ordering them to bring it between making for the partiality of a parent to his them on their shoulders. When they came offspring, I cannot but think he may in time to look at it, one of them who had much wit, make a very able foreign minister for the con- said, What could our master mean by sendgress, in whose service his fidelity may be ing only two men to bring this harrow? no relied on. But I do not at present propose two men upon earth are strong enough to him as such; for though he is now of age, a carry it. Poh! said the other, who was vain In consequence of this decision of the congress, Dr. Franklin thought it his duty to continue in his situation, and did so for many years after, to the great advantage of his country. A friend of Dr. Franklin's having written to him to urge his continuance as minister, and making him some flattering compliments on the occasion, the doctor thus replied: "Your comparison of the key-stone of his strength, what do you talk of two men, following letter of the doctor, will afford a one man may carry it; help it upon my should-sufficient light, and the spirit of it an admir ers and you shall see. As he proceeded with able model of the man's fine faculties. it, the wag kept exclaiming, Zounds! how strong you are! I could not have thought it! Why, you are a Samson! There is not such another man in America. What amazing strength God has given you! But you will kill yourself! Pray put it down and rest a little, or let me bear a part of the weight. No, no, said he, being more encouraged by the compliments, than oppressed by the burden; you shall see I can carry it quite home. And so he did. In this particular, I am afraid my part of the imitation will fall short of the original." Dr. Franklin to R. Izard. "PASSY, Jan. 29, 1778. "DEAR SIR,-I received yours last evening Present circumstances, which I will explain to you when I have the honour of seeing you. prevent my giving it a full answer now. The reasons you offer had before been all under consideration. But I must submit to remain some days under the opinion you appear to have formed, not only of my poor understanding in the general interests of America, but of my defects in sincerity, politeness, and attention to your instructions. These offences I servant, al These and similar transactions were mixed up in the perplexities of his station, and congress, through private complaints to individual members, was frequently vexed by disputes founded only in the vanity or envy, sometimes in the ambition, and not a little in the avarice of individuals, who frequently obtruded their jaundiced suggestions on the congress, which however would not yield to intrigues by recalling Franklin. This letter to congress had however other incentives, which do not appear, but which flatter myself, admit of fair excuses, or were very well known in congress, and par- rather will be found not to have existed. You ticularly to its sagacious and prudent secreta- mention that you feel yourself hurt. Permit ry; it is not necessary to go into details, but me to offer a maxim which has through life some brief notice is due to this great man's been of use to me, and may be so to you, in memory. There existed some jealousy among preventing such imaginary hurts; it is those who were occasionally associated with ways to suppose one's friends may be right, him; even the notice bestowed on him in till one finds them wrong, rather than to sup his 72d year, by the accomplished ladies of pose them wrong till one finds them right. France provoked envy; one of his colleagues You have heard and imagined all that can be wrote that they appeared only like satellites said or supposed on one side of the question, not revolving round the planet Franklin. Arthur on the other. I am, nevertheless, with sincere Lee, one of his early associates in the commis-esteem, dear sir, your most obedient, humble sion to France, had been destined for the misB. FRANKLIN.” sion to Madrid, and had made a private journey to Spain, where he had intercourse with the prime minister, after which he returned to Paris. The cautious policy of the court of Versailles had sought to limit its transactions to one only of the commissioners; and when they determined to send M. Gerard to America, enjoined secrecy in Dr. Franklin; and it was not until Gerard had failed, that Arthur Lee became acquainted with it. This produced anger in Mr. Lee, and it was out of Franklin's power to explain at the time; but it produced an ill will, which rendered their separation necessary. John Adams had by undertaking to pursue a course of policy, carrying a high tone to the count de Vergennes, led the latter to decline all correspondence with Mr. Adams, and this brought Dr. Franklin into a state of discontent with that gentleman, the consequences of which had nearly affected the interest of America, but which, though eventually counteracted, produced a hostility to the doctor that endured during his life. In the distribution of the precarious and scanty funds he was as economical as his own Poor Richard; and even in those days, and among American diplomatists, the unmanly prejudices of northern and southern were uttered in argument against the venerable Franklin, at the very moment that the most eventful diplomacy was principally dependant on his wisdom and discretion. The The doctor had, however, perceived the necessity of terminating this ungracious discord; the prime minister of Louis XVI. was sometimes surprized by letters from individuals of the American delegation, of which others were found to be wholly unacquainted, and who, upon comparison of facts, appeared not to agree with others. M. de Vergennes was at length under the necessity of declining further correspondence with some; and congress coming to a knowledge of the injury to which the public service was exposed, conferred the duties of minister extraordinary on Dr. Franklin, sent Mr. Adams to the Hague; and recalled Mr. Arthur Lee, and Mr. R. Izard. A considerable sensation was occasioned in America and Europe, by the treachery of the American general, ARNOLD. As accounts then and since have greatly differed with respect to some of the causes and circumstances relative to it, the following extracts from letters, written (shortly after the occurrence,) to Dr. Franklin, from two of his correspondents in America, may, perhaps, elucidate that extraordinary event. "Newport, Rhode Island, dated Oct. 10, 1780. "By this ship you will receive an account of the treason and apostacy of one of our greatest generals, (who went over from us to the enemy 25th September last,) and the happy detection of it before the treason was carried into execution. General Arnold has buried all his military glory, and sent his name down in history execrated with contempt and infamy. He will be despised not only by us in the United States, but by all the nations of Europe, and in all future ages. There is reason to believe, that he meditated with the reduction of West Point on the 27th September, the betraying, at the same time, of general Washington and the minister of France, into the hands of the enemy; for his excellency, the chevalier de la Luzerne, toki me, that passing through West Point on his way hither on the 24th, the day before the detection, general Arnold importuned him even to indecency to tarry and rest there four or five days. And Arnold also knew that general Washington would meet there about the same time, on his return from an interview with the French officers at Hartford General Arnold is a loss. But America is so fertile in patriots, that we can afford to lose a distinguished patriot or two every year without any essential injury to the glorious cause of liberty and independence. The greatest injury he can do us will be in information. However, the present state of the American army is now so good, as that the most thorough knowledge of it will rather do us benefit than an injury. The seasonable execution of major Andre the seducer) adjutant-general of the British army, on the d instant, will probably deter such adventurers for the future. Congress, and the assemblies through the states, continue firm and unshaken; and they have a cordial support in the union of the main body of the people at large, notwithstanding the efforts of tories and govern mental connexions intermixed in all parts, whose Sysiphean labours only pull ruin upon themselves. The storm still blows heavy. But our ship will ride it through. With joy we look forward, and with undoubting assurance anticipate the sweets and the anal triumph of American liberty." Philadelphia, dated 12th Oct. 1780. The late providential discovery of Arnold's plot, which appears to have been for a considerable time in agitation, has induced a belief that Rodney had some thing further in view than merely counteracting the design of the comte de Guichen. In a controversy and revolution such as this, where former friendships and intimacies subsisted between the contending parties, and where men of upright intentions took different sides, and men of all characters were engaged in the contest, it would not have been strange or uncommon if conspiracies had been formed; but to the honour of the American army, ARNOLD is the first, and it is believed the only American officer, who has, during this war, entered into a conspiracy to betray his country. You know the character of the aan; he was brave but avaricious, fond of parade, and 6t very serupulous about the means of acquiring moey to defray the expenses of it. He had married a Joung woman who had been distinguished by general Howe's Meschianzi knights, and her father was not remarkable for his attachment to the American cause. The expensive manner in which Arnold lived in Philadelphia, reduced his finances. and the accounts he exhibited against the public, underwent a scrutiny at the board of treasury, not much to the advantage of his our and honesty; which joined to his disappointment in the case of the Active, and the result of the Court martial instituted on the complaint of the council of Pennsylvania, soured his temper, and rendered him a fit object for Clinton's views. By letters found among his private papers, it appears that captain Andre, one of sir H. Clinton's aids, had commenced a correspondence with Mrs. Arnold in 1779, under pretence of supplying her with millinery; whether it was con tinued till it was ripened into the plot of betraying West Point into the hands of the enemy, I will not undertake to say; but that the scheme had been some time in agitation, appears evidently from this, that while the enemy were making preparations for executing their purpose, and giving out that their design was against Virginia, the same reports were circulated in lord Cornwallis's camp in South Carolina, and measures were taken to make us believe he meant to second the expedition. by marching through North Carolina, and forming a junction with sir Henry on his arrival in Virginia. At this time Rodney arrived at New York, and it is conjectured the design was, as soon as they had gained possession of West Point, and cut off the communication between the western and southern states, to turn their whole force against the French fleet at Rhode Island. This, its true, is but conjecture; but it must be confessed the object was great, and had Rodney succeeded, he would have finished the year with as much eclat as he began it. The providential discovery of the plot blasted the schemes of our enemies." Letter from Dr. Franklin to the marquis de la Fayette, then serving in America, mentioning Arnold's treason, and hinting at the price or reward he received from the British government for his treachery. "To the Marquis de la Fayette. "PASSY, May, 14, 1781. "DEAR SIR,-You are a very good correspondent, which I do not deserve, as I am a bad one. The truth is, I have too much business upon my hands, a great deal of it foreign to my function as a minister, which interferes with my writing regularly to my friends. But I am nevertheless extremely sensible of your kindness in sending me such frequent and full intelligence of the state of affairs on your side the water, and in letting me see by your letters, that your health continues, as well as your zeal for our cause and country. "I hope that by this time the ship which has the honour of bearing your name, is safely arrived. She carries clothing for near twenty thousand men, with arms, ammunition, &c. which will supply some of your wants, and colonel Laurens will bring a considerable addition, if Providence favours his passage. You will receive from him the particulars, which makes my writing more fully by him unnecessary. "Your friends have heard of your being gone against the traitor Arnold, and are anxious to hear of your success, and that you have brought him to punishment. Inclosed is a copy of a letter from his agent in England,* *Copy of a letter from Mr. Meyrick, army agent in London, to General Arnold. "PARLIAMENT STREET, 30th Jan. 1781. "SIR,-1 am honoured with your several letters, inclosing bills on Harley and Drummond to the amount of five thousand pounds, the receipt of which I have regularly by packet acknowledged. On the day they were paid I invested the amount in the fund you men tioned, and it was a very favourable time. I flatter myself it will meet your approbation, also the mode in which it was done. "As it is possible some directions might come from you for disposing of the money in some other mode, I thought it might not be so advantageous to lock it up captured by one of our cruisers, and by which | ed from between their teeth, a good deal of their West India prey, having taken twentytwo sail of their homeward-bound prizes. One of our American privateers has taken two more, and brought them into Brest, and two were burnt; there were thirty-four in com the price or reward he received for his treachery may be guessed at. Judas sold only one man, Arnold three millions. Judas got for his one man, thirty pieces of silver, Arnold not a halfpenny a head. A miserable bargain! especially when one considers the quantity of in-pany, with two men of war of the line and famy he has acquired to himself, and entailed on his family. two frigates, who saved themselves by flight, but we do not hear of their being yet got in. "I think it was a wise measure to send colonel Laurens here, who could speak know "The English are in a fair way of gaining still more enemies: they play a desperate game. Fortune may favour them, as it some-ingly of the state of the army. It has been attimes does a drunken dicer; but by their tyranny in the east, they have at length roused the powers there against them; and I do not know that they have in the west a single friend, If they lose their India commerce, (which is one of their present great supports,) and one battle at sea, their credit is gone, and their power follows. Thus empires by pride, folly, and extravagance, ruin themselves like individuals. M. La Mothe Piquet has snatch totally, as it might be a long while before I could receive a power of attorney from you to transfer, had I put it in your name; and meantime the dividend could not be received for your use. The mode I have adopted has been used in like cases, and can be instantly altered to any you direct, on your favouring me with a letter. tended with all the success that perhaps could reasonably be expected; though not with all that was wished. He has fully justified your character of him, and returns thoroughly pos sessed of my esteem; but that cannot and ought not to please him so much as a little more money would have done for his beloved army. This court continues firm and steady in its friendship, and does every thing it can for us. Can we not do a little more for ourselves? My successor (for I have desired the congress to send me one) will find it in the best disposition towards us, and I hope he will take care to cultivate that disposition. You who know the leading people of both coun tries, can perhaps judge better than any member of congress of a person suitable for this station. I wish you may be in the way to give your advice, when the matter is agitated in that assembly. I have been long tired of the trade of minister, and wished for a little repose before I went to sleep for good and all. £4,987 10s od I thought I might have held out till the peace; but as that seems at a greater distance than the end of my days, I grow impatient. I would not, however, quit the service of the public, if I did not sincerely think that it would be easy for the congress, with your counsel, to find a fitter man. God bless you, and crown all your labours with success. "The account is as follows, viz. Bought by Samuel and William Scholey, stock. brokers, for major general Arnold, 7000. stock, in new 4 per cents. a. 71 1.4, as follows: In name of major-general Benedict Arnold, Paid. 100. stock a. 71 1-4 new 4 per cent consols. 6,9001. stock a. 71 1-4 in name of J. Meyrick, esq. 7.000Z Commission paid to brokers Letter of attorney to receive dividends 8 15 0 1 6 £4,996 6 6 "There then remains of the 50002, three pounds, thirteen shillings and sixpence. "Thus, by this method, if I receive any instructions from you for employing your money in a different manner, I can sell out the 69007. and dispose of your money agreeable to your directions before this letter reaches you; and if it is your wish that it should remain in the funds, it can be placed under your name, by my transferring the 69007. and joining it to your 100%. The reason of my purchasing the latter sum in your name was, that you might have an account open. Also, the power of attorney now inclosed will enable me to receive the dividends on the whole 70001. stock, after I have made the transfer, should you choose I should do so. I hope I have made myself properly understood, and can as sure you I have, to the best of my abilities, acted for you as myself. I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient, and most humble servant, "Major general Arnold. JAMES MEYRICK." N. B. In addition to this supposed purchase money of the general himself, the following pensions were afterwards granted to his family. By warrant dated July 20, 1783. "With the highest regard and most sincere affection, I am, dear sir, &c. &c. B. FRANKLIN." farmers, with their wives and children, and | faith let you and I, my friend, comfort ourcarrying off their scalps, for the reward selves; it is the only comfort, in the present promised in proportion to the number, (said dark scene of things that is allowed us. already to have amounted to two thousand), was the foundation of a project which he formed for awakening the feelings of humanity to a due sense of the barbarity which one of the cabinet ministers had avowed in the house of lords, as employing the means which Providence placed in their hands; the following letter shows the nature of the facts upon which he projected a series of newspapers, or of papers so printed as to imitate a paper at that time printed in Boston called the Boston Independent Chronicle. "To Mr. Hutton. "PASSY, 7th July, 1782. "I shall not fail to write to the government of America, urging that effectual care may be taken to protect and save the remainder of those unhappy people. Since writing the above I have received a Philadelphia paper, containing some account of the same horrid transaction, a little different, and some circumstances alleged as excuses or palliations, but extremely weak and insufficient. I send B. FRANKLIN." it to you enveloped. The other article is a jeu d'esprit of a gayer turn, originating from a memorial of the British ambassador, sir Joseph Yorke, reclaiming the king's ships, the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, prizes carried into Holland by the American squadron under commodore Jones; whom sir Joseph designated, the pirate Paul Jones of Scotland; a rebel subject, and a criminal of the state." The deception intended by this supposed Supplement," (which was very accurately imitated with respect to printing, paper, the insertion of advertisements, &c.) was, that by transmitting it to England, it might actually be taken for what it purported to be, and the two prominent articles contained in it consequently, copied into the English papers, as genuine intelligence from America. 66 "MY DEAR OLD FRIEND,-A letter written by you to M. Bertin, ministre d'etat, containing an account of the abominable murders committed by some of the frontier people on the poor Moravian Indians, has given me infinite pain and vexation. The dispensations of Providence in this world puzzle my weak reason; I cannot comprehend why cruel men should have been permitted thus to destroy their fellow creatures. Some of the Indians may be supposed to have committed sins, but one cannot think the little children had committed any worthy of death. Why has a single man in England, who happens to love blood and to bate Americans, been permitted to gratify that bad temper, by hiring German murderers, and joining them with his own, to destroy in a continued course of bloody years, near one hundred thousand human creatures, many of them possessed of useful talents, virtues, and abilities, to which he has no pretension! It is he who has furnished the savages with hatchets and scalping knives, and engages them to fall upon defenceles farmers, and murder them with their wives and children, paying for their scalps, of which an account kept in America, already amounts as I have heard to near two thousand. Perhaps the "I congratulate you on the late revopeople of the frontiers, exasperated by the lution in your public affairs. Much good may cruelties of the Indians, have been induced to arise from it, though possibly not all that good kill all Indians that fall into their hands with-men, and even the new ministers themselves, out distinction; so that even these horrid murders of our poor Moravians may be laid to his charge. And yet this man lives, enjoys all the good things this world can afford, and is surrounded by flatterers who keep even his conscience quiet by telling him he is the best of princes! I wonder at this, but I cannot therefore part with the comfortable belief of a divine Providence: and the more I see the impossibility from the extent and number of his crimes, of giving equivalent punishment to a wicked man in this life, the more I am convinced of a future state, in which all that here appears to be wrong shall be set right, all that is crooked made straight. In this The end proposed thereby, was to shame It is uncertain the British government. whether this artifice succeeded as well as a similar one of Dr. Franklin's, the "Prussian Edict," did, as related in his PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. Dr. Franklin had a great opinion of the effects to be produced by suitable writings in the public prints, as will appear from the following letter to Dr. Price. * * PASSY, June 13, 1782. * * may have wished or expected. The change, however, in the sentiments of the nation, in which I see evident effects of your writings, with those of our deceased friend Mr. Burgh, and others of our valuable club, should encourage you to proceed. The ancient Roman and Greek orators could only speak to the number of citizens capable of being assembled within the reach of their voice; their writings had little effect, because the bulk of the people could not read. Now by the press we can speak to nations; and good books, and well-written pamphlets, have great and general influence. The facility with which the same truths may be repeatedly enforced by |