nations and languages, who by their numbers may drown and stifle the English, which otherwise would probably become in the course of two centuries the most extensive language in the world, the Spanish only excepted? It is a fact that the Irish emigrants and their children are now in possession of the government of Pennsylvania by their majority in the Assembly, as well as of a great part of the territory, and I remember well the first ship that brought any of them over. I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately,

B. FRANKLIN.

MCCCVI

TO GEORGE WHATELY

PASSY, 21 August, 1784.

MY DEAR OLD FRIEND:-I received your kind letter of May 3, 1783. I am ashamed that it has been so long unanswered. The indolence of old age, frequent indisposition, and too much business are my only excuses. I had great pleasure in reading it, as it informed me of your welfare.

Your excellent little work, The Principles of Trade, is too little known. I wish you would send me a copy of it by the return of my grandson and secretary, whom I beg leave to recommend to your civilities. I would get it translated and printed here. And if your bookseller has any quantity of them left, I should be glad he would send them to America. The ideas of our people there, though rather better

than those that prevail in Europe, are not so good as they should be, and that piece might be of service among them.

Since and soon after the date of your letter, we lost unaccountably, as well as unfortunately, that worthy, valuable young man you mention, your namesake, Maddison. He was infinitely regretted by all that knew him.

I

I am sorry your favorite charity does not go on as you wish it. It is shrunk indeed by your admitting only sixty children a year. What you have told your brethren respecting America is true. If you find it difficult to dispose of your children in England, it looks as if you had too many people. And yet you are afraid of emigration. A subscription is lately set on foot here to encourage and assist mothers in nursing their infants themselves at home, the practice of sending them to the Enfants Trouvés having risen here to a monstrous excess, as, by the annual bill, it appears they amount to near one third of the children born in Paris! The subscription is likely to succeed, and may do a great deal of good, though it cannot answer all the purposes of a foundling hospital.

Your eyes must continue very good, since you can write so small a hand without spectacles. I cannot distinguish a letter, even of large print, but am happy in the invention of double spectacles, which, serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful to me as ever they were. If all the other defects and infirmities were as easily and cheaply

I The Foundling Hospital, of which Mr. Whately was the Treasurer.

VOL. X.-27.

remedied, it would be worth while for friends to live a good deal longer, but I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning. Adieu, and believe me ever yours, most affectionately,

MCCCVII

B. FRANKLIN.

TO A FRIEND IN ENGLAND

I

PASSY, 21 August, 1784.

I

DEAR SIR:-Understanding that my letter intended for you by General Melvill was lost at the Hotel d'Espagne, I take this opportunity by my grandson to give you the purport of it, as well as I can recollect. I thanked you for the pleasure you had procured me of the General's conversation, whom I found a judicious, sensible, and amiable man. was glad to hear that you possessed a comfortable retirement, and more so that you had thoughts of removing to Philadelphia, for that it would make me very happy to have you there. Your companions would be very acceptable to the Library, but I hoped you would long live to enjoy their company yourself. I agreed with you in sentiments concerning the Old Testament, and thought the clause in our Constitution, which required the members of Assembly to declare their belief that the whole of it was given by divine inspiration, had better have been omitted; that I had opposed the clause, but being overpowered by numbers, and fearing more might in future times

I Probably Dr. Priestley.

be grafted on it, I prevailed to have the additional clause "that no further or more extended profession of faith should ever be exacted." I observed to you, too, that the evil of it was the less, as no inhabitant, nor any officer of government, except the members of Assembly, was obliged to make that declaration.

So much for that letter; to which I may now add that there are several things in the Old Testament impossible to be given by divine inspiration, such as the approbation ascribed to the angel of the Lord of that abominably wicked and detestable action of Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite. If the rest of the book were like that, I should rather suppose it given by inspiration from another quarter, and renounce the whole.

By the way, how goes on the Unitarian Church in Essex Street? and the honest minister of it,' is he comfortably supported? Your old colleague, Mr. Radcliff, is he living? And what became of Mr. Denham?

My grandson, who will have the honor of delivering this to you, may bring me a line from you, and I hope will bring me an account of your continuing well and happy.

I jog on still, with as much health and as few of the infirmities of old age as I have any reason to expect. But notwithstanding the decay of my constitution, my regard for my old friends remains firm and entire. You will always have a good share of it, for I am ever, with great and sincere esteem, dear sir, etc., B. FRANKLIN.

I Judges, chap. iv.

2 Theophilus Lindsey.

MCCCVIII

TO COUNT DE VERGENNES

PASSY, 3 September, 1784.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit to your Excellency, by order of Congress, a resolution of theirs, dated the 11th day of May last, which is in the words following, viz.:

"Resolved, That Dr. Franklin be instructed to express to the court of France the constant desire of Congress to meet their wishes; that these States are about to form a general system of commerce, by treaties with other nations; that at this time they cannot foresee what claim might be given to those nations by the explanatory propositions from the Count de Vergennes, on the second and third articles of our Treaty of Amity and Commerce with His Most Christian Majesty, but that he may be assured it will be our constant care to place no people on more advantageous ground than the subjects of his Majesty."

With great respect, I am, etc.,

B. FRANKLIN.

1 On the 9th of September, the Count de Vergennes acknowledged the receipt of the resolution of Congress, and added: "This declaration founded on the treaty of the 6th February, 1778, has been very agreeable to the king; and you, sir, can assure Congress that the United States shall constantly experience a perfect reciprocity in France."