Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Ohio, an account of which may be found in the English Philosophical Transactions.

As to question second, observations, have been made in America of the variation of the needle, and, as well as I can remember, it is found to differ a degree in about twenty years.

As to question third, the height of the barometer, by many years' observation, is said to vary between 28.59 and 30.78. The conjectures from these changes are still uncertain.

As to question fourth, the negroes, who are free, live among the white people, but are generally improvident and poor. I think they are not deficient in natural understanding, but they have not the advantages of education. They make good musicians.

As to question fifth, I do not know that any marks of volcanoes, any lava, or pumice-stone, have been met with in North America. Pit-coal is found in many places, and very good, but little used, there being plenty of wood.

These answers are very short. I hope to procure you such as shall be more full and satisfactory. With great respect, I have the honor to be, sir, etc., B. FRANKLIN.

DLXVII

TO JOHN BAPTIST BECCARIA

LONDON, 20 March, 1774.

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR: - I have received several of your favors lately, relating to the edition of your book in English, which I have put into the hands of the translator, who will observe your directions. The work is now in the press, and goes on pretty fast. I am much obliged by your kind assistance in procuring the impressions from the plates. They are not yet arrived here; but the money, which I find by a note from you to Dr. Priestly amounts to one hundred and forty-three livres of Piedmont, will be paid by the bookseller, Mr. Nourse, in my absence, to any person you may order to receive it.

Mr. Walsh, the same ingenious member of our society who went to France to make experiments on the torpedo, has lately hit on a new discovery in electricity which surprises us a little. You know that finding air, made rarer by the pump or by heat, gave less obstruction to the passage of electricity than when in its denser state, we were apt to think a perfect vacuum would give it no resistance at all. But he, having, by boiling the mercury, made a perfect vacuum in a long bent Torricellian tube, has found that vacuum absolutely to resist the passage of the electric fluid during two or three days, or till some quantity of air, the smallest imaginable, is admitted into it. This, if verified by future experiments, may afford some new light to the doctrine

The remainder of the letter is lost.-EDITOR.

DLXVIII

TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY

It

That the vegetable creation should restore the air which is spoiled by the animal part of it, looks like a rational system, and seems to be of a piece with the rest. Thus fire purifies water all the world over. purifies it in distillation, when it raises it in vapors, and lets it fall in rain; and further still by filtration, when, keeping it fluid, it suffers that rain to percolate the earth. We knew before, that putrid animal substances were converted into sweet vegetables, when mixed with the earth and applied as manure; and now it seems that the same putrid substances, mixed with the air, have a similar effect. The strong, thriving state of your mint in putrid air seems to show that the air is mended by taking something from it, and not by adding to it. I hope this will give some check to the rage of destroying trees that grow near houses, which has accompanied our late improvements in gardening, from an opinion of their being unwholesome. I am certain, from long observation, that there is nothing unhealthy in the air of woods; for we Americans have everywhere our country habitations in the midst of woods, and no people on earth enjoy better health, or are more prolific.

B. FRANKLIN.

This extract, taken from Priestley's Experiments on Air, is introduced with the following remark: "Dr. Franklin, who, as I have already observed, saw some of my plants in a very flourishing state, in noxious air, was pleased to express very great satisfaction with the result of the experiments In answer to the letter in which I informed him of it, he says," etc. -EDITOR.

DLXIX

TO THOMAS CUSHING

LONDON, 22 March, 1774.

SIR:-I received your favor of January 23d. I suppose we never had since we were a people so few friends in Britain. The violent destruction of the tea seems to have united all parties here against our province, so that the bill now brought into Parliament for shutting up Boston as a port till satisfaction is made, meets with no opposition. An alteration in our charter relating to the choice of the council is also talked of, but it is not certain that it will be proposed at present. I cannot but hope that the affair of the tea will have been considered in the Assembly before this time, and satisfaction proposed if not made; for such a step will remove much of the prejudice now entertained against us, and put us again on a fair footing in contending for our old privileges as occasion may require. I am not well enough to bustle or to write much, and can only add my best wishes for the prosperity of my country.

With great respect and esteem, I have the honor to be, sir,

Your most obedt. humble servt.,

B. FRANKLIN.

P. S.-By the inquiries that I hear are made, I suspect there may be a design to seize some persons who are supposed to be ringleaders, and bring them here for trial.

It is talked here that authentic advices are received

assuring government that Messrs. Hancock and Adams were seen at the head of the mob that destroyed the tea, openly encouraging them. I oppose this report by alleging the improbability that, when the lower actors thought it prudent to disguise themselves, any of the principal inhabitants should appear in the affair.

DLXX

TO THOMAS CUSHING

LONDON, 2 April, 1774.

SIR:-My last was of the 22d past, since which I have received none of your favors. I mentioned that the bill brought into Parliament for punishing Boston met with no opposition. It did, however, meet with a little before it got through, some few of the members speaking against it in the House of Commons, and more in the House of Lords. It passed, however, by a very great majority in both, and received the royal assent on Thursday, the 31st past. You will have a copy of it from Mr. Lee.

In mine of February 2d, I informed you that, after the treatment I had received at the council board, it was not possible for me to act longer as your agent, apprehending I could as such be of no further use to the province. I have nevertheless given what assistance I could, as a private man, by speaking to members of both Houses, and by joining in the petitions of the natives of America now happening to be in London, which were ably drawn by Mr. Lee, to be

« ZurückWeiter »