edifices, and improvements, rendering England a complete paradise, might have been obtained by spending those millions in doing good, which in the last war have been spent in doing mischief; in bringing misery into thousands of families, and destroying the lives of so many thousands of working people, who might have performed the useful labor! I am pleased with the late astronomical discoveries made by our society. Furnished as all Europe now is with academies of science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid, and discoveries made, of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known one hundred years hence. I wish continued success to the labors of the Royal Society, and that you may long adorn their chair; being, with the highest esteem, dear sir, etc., B. FRANKLIN. P. S.-Dr. Blagden will acquaint you with the experiment of a vast globe sent up into the air, much talked of here, and which, if prosecuted, may furnish means of new knowledge. MCXCV FROM THE POPE'S NUNCIO 28 July, 1783. The Apostolical Nuncio has the honor to send Mr. Franklin the enclosed note, which he requests he 'The Royal Society of London. will be pleased to forward to the Congress of the United States of North America, and support it with his credit. Note Before the Revolution, which has just been completed in North America, the Catholics and missionaries of those provinces depended, as to their spiritual concerns, on the Apostolical Vicar, resident in London. It is well known that this arrangement can no longer exist; but, as it is essential that the Catholic subjects of the United States should have an ecclesiastic to govern them in their religious concerns, the congregation de Propagandâ Fide existing at Rome, for the establishment and conservation of missions, has come to the determination of proposing to Congress to establish in some city of the United States of North America, one of their Catholic subjects, with the powers of Apostolical Vicar, and in the character of Bishop, or simply in the quality of Apostolical Prefect. The establishment of an Apostolical Vicar-Bishop appears the most eligible, the more so as the Catholic subjects of the United States would find themselves in a situation to receive confirmation and orders in their own country, without being obliged to go for that purpose to the country of a foreign power. And as it might sometimes happen that among the subjects of the United States there might be no person in a situation to be charged with the spiritual government, either as Bishop or Apostolical Prefect, it would be necessary in such circumstances, that Congress should consent to choose him from among the subjects of a foreign nation the most friendly to the United States. MCXCVI FROM B. VAUGHAN LONDON, 8 August, 1783. MY DEAREST SIR:-I beg to introduce to your kind regards one of my best respected friends, Mr. Dugald Stewart, who, though as yet little known out of Scotland, is one of the best known men in it. He stands in the very first class of their mathematicians and literary men. He has twice, at a day's warning taken up Dr. Adam Ferguson's lectures in moral philosophy, and twice completely excelled him in the opinion of every one, as was proved in particular by the attendance he had while he lectured. Perhaps you may remember his father, who lectured at Edinburgh in mathematics, and wrote a treatise on the sun's distance from us, as deducible from the theory of gravity. It is very poor compliment to Mr. Stewart to say that, in science, it is the father who is really the child. My friend travels with Lord Ancram, the son of the Marquis of Lothian, whom he represents to me as a pretty and very amiable young man. I beg you will extend your notice to him also. I have extreme confidence in begging your attention to Mr. Stewart, because I am sure it is in his power to repay you by the information he can give you of the literary characters in his country, and the objects they are pursuing. He is, however, very diffident, and is very fearful of betraying himself upon subjects which he is not master of, in which list for the present he reckons mathematics, and is therefore averse to meeting M. d'Alembert on the subject, though he wants to see him. He is not strong in natural philosophy, but he understands every thing in it. He burns to see you as its present father; and, as at least half the time I spent alone with him in Scotland was employed in conversing about you, I believe he would not think he had been out of his country unless he was allowed to see you at Paris. I have no news which I have the courage to write you. The way things go on will have sufficiently explained some of the reasons of my past silence. At present, however, there is no news which you are not at least as well acquainted with as myself, were I inclined to go into it. I think the Nation would in time open its eyes about improvements in commerce and peace, if pains were taken with them, and the ministry were as much in earnest as the last on this point. Please to remember me very affectionately to Mr. Franklin, and for yourself, believe me, my dearest sir, your ever respectful (devoted, grateful) and affectionate humble servant, MCXCVII BENJA. VAUGHAN. WM. TEMPLE FRANKLIN TO M. DE RAYNEVAL Mr. Franklin, junior, presents his respectful compliments to his Excellency, Count de Vergennes, and has the honor of sending to him enclosed the petition of Mr. Williams, backed by several of his creditors; the Count desired to have it. Mr. Franklin hopes no obstacle will now arise to prevent the immediate compliance with a request so much desired by all parties. PASSY, 15 August, 1783. MCXCVIII TO COUNT DE VERGENNES PASSY, 16 August, 1783. SIR: I have the honor to inform your Excellency that the English ministry do not agree to any of the propositions that have been made, either by us or by their minister here; and they have sent over a plan for the definitive treaty, which consists merely of the preliminaries formerly signed, with a short introductory paragraph, and another at the conclusion, confirming and establishing the said preliminary articles. My colleagues seem inclined to sign this with Mr. Hartley, and so to finish the affair. I am, with respect, sir, your Excellency's, etc., B. FRANKLIN. MCXCIX TO COUNT DE VERGENNES PASSY, 24 August, 1783. SIR: Mr. Harrison, an American merchant, who will have the honor of presenting this to your |