MCCCCXXXVII

TO MRS. JANE MECOM

PHILADELPHIA, 21 September, 1786.

MY DEAR SISTER:-I received your kind letter of the 25th past, by our Cousin Williams, who, besides, informs me of your welfare, which gives me great pleasure.

Your grandson having finished all the business I had to employ him in, set out for Boston a few days before Cousin Williams arrived. I suppose he may be with you before this time.

I had begun to build two good houses next the street, instead of three old ones which I pulled down, but my neighbor disputing my bounds, I have been obliged to postpone till that dispute is settled by law. In the meantime, the workmen and materials being ready, I have ordered an addition to the house I live in, it being too small for our growing family. There are a good many hands employed, and I hope to see it covered in before winter. I propose to have in it a long room for my library and instruments, with two good bedchambers and two garrets. The library is to be even with the floor of my best old chamber; and the story under it will for the present be employed only to hold wood, but may be made into rooms hereafter. This addition is on the side next the river. I hardly know how to justify building a library at an age that will so soon oblige me to quit it; but we are apt to forget that we are grown old, and building is an amusement.

I think you will do well to instruct your grandson

in the art of making that soap. It may be of use to him, and 't is pity it should be lost.

Some knowing ones here in matters of weather predict a hard winter. Permit me to have the pleasure of helping to keep you warm. Lay in a good stock of firewood, and draw upon me for the amount. Your bill shall be paid upon sight by your affectionate brother,

MCCCCXXXVIII

TO M. DE CHAUMONT

B. FRANKLIN.

PHILADELPHIA, 7 October, 1786. DEAR FRIEND:-I have just been writing a French letter to Mademoiselle Chaumont, but it costs me too much time to write in that language, and after all 't is very bad French, and I therefore write to you in English, which I think you will as easily understand; if not, ma chère amie, Sophie, can interpret it for you.

Some of our letters are long on the way. The one you were so kind as to write me the 24th of September, '85, did not come to hand till the beginning of June, '86, and lately M. Le Caze tells me that he had a packet from you to me, but that he unfortunately left it at L'Orient, and it is not yet arrived.

If you have made any further experiments in whitening the green vegetable wax, I shall be glad to hear what success you have met with.

I have frequently the pleasure of seeing your valuable son, whom I love as my own. He has communicated to me his inclination, a young lady of this

country, and that he has written to you for your and his mother's consent. I wish his happiness, and I believe he will find it in the choice he has made, if you approve of it; for the lady bears an excellent character, and is of one of the first families in this country.

Please to present my affectionate respects to Madame de Chaumont, and my love to all your children.

With great esteem and affection, I am, my dear friend, yours most sincerely,

B. FRANKLIN. My grandsons present their respects and best wishes.

MCCCCXXXIX

FROM THOMAS PERCIVAL

MANCHESTER, 27 October, 1786.

DEAR SIR: I received, with very great pleasure, your obliging letter by Mr. Vaughan; and delivered to our Literary Society the volume of American Philosophical Transactions which accompanied it. The donation was highly acceptable, both from its intrinsic value, and as a pledge of friendly correspondence with the excellent institution over which you preside. The formal acknowledgment of such favors is the official duty of our secretaries; and they have been directed to return our thanks in the most grateful and respectful terms, together with the present of our Memoirs. The diffusion of the arts and sciences through so many extensive regions

of the globe must afford a subject of contemplation peculiarly satisfactory to your mind; as you cannot but feel the delightful consciousness of having been a principal instrument, under Providence, in its accomplishment. And I hope that sun, which has so long blessed the nations, will not set till the interests of truth and knowledge, of civil and religious liberty, are firmly established in the western hemisphere, which it now enlightens.

Your valuable papers on Chimneys and on the Consumption of Smoke, have arrived very seasonably, to aid a plan which I have in view. It is my intention to offer a representation to our magistrates, at the ensuing Quarter Sessions, of the expediency and necessity of adopting some measures to purify the air of Manchester; for they are guardians of the health, as well as of the morals, of their fellow-citizens. And though works, which are essential to the prosecution of trade, ought not to be deemed nuisances, the persons who are engaged in them should be induced or compelled to conduct them in a manner as little injurious as possible to the public. This town now contains about forty-six thousand inhabitants; and I observe, with concern, an annual and large increase of pulmonic complaints. To the offensive fumes which we breathe, I apprehend, these distressing and fatal maladies are chiefly to be ascribed. The smoke from the velvet dress works is particularly acrimonious and offensive to the lungs ; and it is so copious, even from a single chimney, as to scatter a shower of soot over a very considerable space. I shall think myself much obliged by the

communication of any hints, that your knowledge or experience may suggest on this subject, which is interesting not only to Manchester, but to most other manufacturing towns.

We have now established here an institution on a plan similar to the late Academy at Warrington, and in conjunction with this a medical school is formed, which seems to bid fair for eminent success. I will send you our Reports when the Manchester Memoirs are forwarded to you.

Dr. and Mrs. Priestley have been here this summer, together with Dr. Kippis. Dr. Priestley is not in a very good state of health, having had a return of the complaint with which he was visited several years ago; but his spirits and ardor do not desert him. He is at this time zealously engaged in attempts to convert the Jews to Christianity. For this undertaking he believes himself peculiarly well fitted, as it is a part of his creed that Jesus Christ was the actual son of Joseph, and a lineal descendant of the house of David. But the Jewish rabbis have declared their resolution to enter into no discussion on these topics, being forbidden, as they allege, by their most sacred laws.

Dr. Kippis is busied with the Life of Captain Cook, which is to be published separately, as well as in the Biographia Britannica. Our excellent friend, Dr. Price, is, I hear, deeply affected with the death of his wife. A fresh paralytic stroke carried her off about a month since. The doctor is preparing for the press a volume of sermons in support of the Arian doctrine, and an enlarged edition of his