attend you, and affright even your innocent children. Fly where you will, your consciences will go with you. Talking in your sleep shall betray you, in the delirium of a fever you yourselves shall make your own wickedness known.

One hundred and forty peaceable Indians yet remain in this government. They have, by Christian missionaries, been brought over to a liking, at least, of our religion; some of them lately left their nation, which is now at war with us, because they did not choose to join with them in their depredations; and to show their confidence in us, and to give us an equal confidence in them, they have brought and put into our hands their wives and children. Others have lived long among us in Northampton county, and most of their children have been born there. These are all now trembling for their lives. They have been hurried from place to place for safety, now concealed in corners, then sent out of the province, refused a passage through a neighbouring colony, and returned, not unkindly perhaps, but disgracefully, on our hands. O Pennsylvania! Once renowned for kindness to strangers, shall the clamors of a few mean niggards about the expense of this public hospitality, an expense that will not cost the noisy wretches sixpence a piece, (and what is the expense of the poor maintenance we afford them, compared to the expense they might occasion if in arms against us?) shall so senseless a clamor, I say, force you to turn out of your own doors these unhappy guests, who have offended their own country-folks by their affection for you, who, confiding in your goodness, have put themselves under your protection? Those whom you have disarmed to satisfy groundless suspicions, will you leave them exposed to the armed madmen of your country? Unmanly men who are not ashamed to come with weap

ons against the unarmed, to use the sword against women, and the bayonet against young children; and who have already given such bloody proofs of their Inhumanity and cruelty.

Let us rouse ourselves, for shame, and redeem the honor of our province from the contempt of its neighbours; let all good men join heartily and unanimously in support of the laws, and in strengthening the hands of government; that justice may be done, the wicked punished, and the innocent protected; otherwise we can, as a people, expect no blessing from Heaven; there will be no security for our persons or properties; anarchy and confusion will prevail over all; and violence without judgment dispose of every thing.

When I mention the baseness of the murderers, in the use they made of arms, I cannot, I ought not, to forget the very different behaviour of brave men and true soldiers, of which this melancholy occasion has afforded us fresh instances. The Royal Highlanders have, in the course of this war, suffered as much as any other corps, and have frequently had their ranks thinned by an Indian enemy; yet they did not for this retain a brutal undistinguishing resentment against all Indians, friends as well as foes. But a company of them, happening to be here, when the one hundred and forty poor Indians above mentioned were thought in too much danger to stay longer in the province, cheerfully undertook to protect and escort them to New York, which they executed (as far as that Government would permit the Indians to come) with fidelity and honor; and their captain, Robinson, is justly applauded and honored by all sensible and good people, for the care, tenderness, and humanity, with which he treated those unhappy fugitives, during their march in this severe season.

General Gage, too, has approved of his officer's

conduct, and, as I hear, ordered him to remain with the Indians at Amboy, and continue his protection to them, till another body of the King's forces could be sent to relieve his company; and escort their charge back in safety to Philadelphia, where his Excellency has had the goodness to direct those forces to remain for some time, under the orders of our governor, for the security of the Indians; the troops of this province being at present necessarily posted on the frontier. Such just and generous actions endear the military to the civil power, and impress the minds of all the discerning with a still greater respect for our national government. I shall conclude with observing, that cowards can handle arms, can strike where they are sure to meet with no return, can wound, mangle, and inurder; but it belongs to brave men to spare and to protect; for, as the poet says,

COOL THOUGHTS

ON THE

PRESENT SITUATION

OF OUR

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND IN THE COUNTRY.

FIRST PRINTED AT PHILADELPHIA, IN THE YEAR 1764.

Dr. Franklin returned from his first mission to England in 1762, having accomplished the object for which he was sent out. It was decided, that the proprietary estates in Pennsylvania should be taxed in due proportion for the defence of the colony. Thus was taken away a source of contention, which had embroiled the assembly and governors for many years. Other difficulties, however, soon after arose, in consequence of the opposition of the governor to the wishes of the assembly. The disputes grew every day more warm, and the discontents became general throughout the province. In this state of things, it was proposed to petition the King to take the government of the colony into his own hands, after making a proper remuneration to the proprietaries; or, in other words, to convert the Proprietary Government into a Royal Government. The following piece was written in defence of this measure. EDITOR.

SIR,

Philadelphia, April 12th, 1764.

It will be no

Your apology was unnecessary. trouble, but a pleasure, if I can give you the satisfaction you desire. I shall therefore immediately communicate to you my motives for approving the proposal of

endeavouring to obtain a Royal Government, in exchange for this of the Proprietaries; with such answers to the objections you mention, as, in my opinion, fully obviate them.

I do not purpose entering into the merits of the disputes between the proprietaries and the people. I only observe it as a fact known to us all, that such disputes there are, and that they have long subsisted, greatly to the prejudice of the province, clogging and embarrassing all the wheels of government, and exceedingly obstructing the public defence, and the measures wisely concerted by our gracious Sovereign, for the common security of the colonies. I may add it as another fact, that we are all heartily tired of these disputes.

It is very remarkable, that disputes of the same kind have arisen in all proprietary governments, and subsisted till their dissolution. All were made unhappy by them, and found no relief but in recurring finally to the immediate government of the crown. Pennsylvania and Maryland are the only two of the kind remaining, and both at this instant agitated by the same contentions between proprietary interest and power, and popular liberty. Through these contentions the good people of that province are rendered equally unhappy with ourselves, and their proprietary, perhaps, more so than ours; for he has no Quakers in his assembly to saddle with the blame of those contentions, nor can he justify himself with the pretence, that turning to the church has made his people his enemies.

Pennsylvania had scarce been settled twenty years, when these disputes began between the first proprietor and the original settlers; they continued, with some intermissions, during his whole life; his widow took them up, and continued them after his death. Her