NOW FIRST EDITED FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS AND OTHER WRITINGS, BY JOHN BIGELOW. SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. VOL. I. "Plurimæ consentiunt genies populi primarium fuisse virum." PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. LONDON: 10 HENRIETTA ST., COVENT GARDEN. PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. MEM AOBK LIPPINCOTT'S PRESS, PHILADELPHIA. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IN preparing a new edition of The Life of Franklin, Written by Himself, the Editor has made an effort to combine with some material additions to and improvements of the text a substantial reduction in its price. Besides a careful personal revision of its pages, he has profited faithfully by the criticisms of the press, and by the suggestions of private correspondents, in searching out and correcting every error which had escaped his attention in the first edition. The additions, though not very voluminous, will be found important. While the Editor hopes to have added materially to the value of this work, he congratulates himself upon having been able, with the co-operation of his publishers, by a slight reduction in the size of the page, without any reduction in the size of the type, to bring it within the reach of that large class of young readers who can rarely afford to buy costly books. This biography has been fortunate enough to attract the attention and to merit the favor of the British press, which has heretofore maintained a strangely obstinate silence about Dr. Franklin. The terms in which the career |