ner, or in any degree, impeach the honour, integrity, or conduct of the said Governor or Lieutenant-Governor; and their lordships are humbly of opinion, that the said petition ought to be dismissed." Accordingly, and with great pleasure, George III. was pleased to take the advice of his faithful Council, and did so order that the said petition be dismissed as groundless, vexatious, scandalous, etc., etc. The Revolution was on the way.

The day after the Privy Council farce, Dr. Priestley went to breakfast with Franklin, at the latter's lodgings in Craven Street. The philosopher was serene, as usual, and remarked, anent the outrageous tirade of Wedderburn: "I have never before been so sensible of the power of a good conscience; for, if I had not considered the thing for which I have been so much insulted as one of the best actions of my life, and what I should certainly do again in the same circumstances, I should not have supported it." Nor did the insult end with the entertainment of the Cockpit. Within twenty-four hours Franklin received formal notice that his Majesty's Postmaster-General "found it necessary" to dismiss him from his office of PostmasterGeneral in North America.

"The expression," as the deposed official wrote to Thomas Cushing, was well chosen, for in truth they were under a necessity of doing it; it was not their own inclination; they had no fault to find with my conduct in the office; they knew my merit in it, and that, if it was now an office of value, it had become such chiefly through my care and good management."

The persecution of the great American had now

been accomplished to the satisfaction of King George and his ministerial henchmen; the stiffnecked provincials were rebuked in the person of their distinguished representative. But the gentlemen of government forgot that in loading Franklin with abuse they had increased a hundred-fold his influence with his own countrymen. To make a man a martyr is to make him likewise a power.

His

AD" B. Franklin, agent," as he modestly described himself, packed up his trunks during the spring of 1774, and sailed away from the country whose public servants had used him so ill, he would have found himself, on reaching home, the most popular man in America. treatment by Wedderburn, the hatred shown him by the court party, and the loss of his postmastergeneralship, served only to endear the philosopher to those who guarded so anxiously the threatened liberties of their native land. What more natural, therefore, than to return to his own shores, and there reap the reward of his Titanic, if unsuccessful labours, by playing the hero and enjoying the approbation and applause of the colonies? The prospect would have held out temptations to a statesman of the selfish, vainglorious kind. But Franklin was cast in a different mould: although he had his share of vanity, as he was free to confess, egotism could

His useful

not run away with his head or heart. ness as a colonial agent was gone completely, now that the Privy Council had insulted both him and those he represented; yet for all that, he reasoned, he might aid America by staying in London and working indirectly rather than officially. Despite the clamours of government, to whom the question of provincial rights had become as the red rag to the proverbial bull, many Englishmen took a fair-minded view of the situation, and among them were certain members of Parliament with an influence and kindly disposition which seemed worth the cultivation. There, for instance, was that shining champion of America, Lord Chatham (the one-time Mr. Pitt), whose moral support might mean volumes, even though he happened to be in opposition to the ministry. Thus it came to pass that Franklin, still hopeful as a schoolboy, determined to stick to his colours, and to try the effect of a little quiet diplomacy. It was about this time that he devised the famous emblematic picture representing the future condition of Great Britain, should she persist in her oppression of the colonies. The design was reproduced on copper-plate, struck off on cards, and printed, too, with an " explanation" and "moral”

attached.

66

'Great Britain," said the explanation, "is supposed to have been placed upon the globe; but the colonies (that is, her limbs), being severed from her, she is seen lifting her eyes and mangled stumps to Heaven; her shield, which she is unable to wield, lies useless by her side; her lance has pierced New England; the laurel branch has fallen from the hand of Pennsylvania; the English oak has lost its head, and stands a bare trunk, with a few withered branches; briers and

thorns are on the ground beneath it; the British ships have brooms at their topmastheads, denoting their being on sale; and Britannia herself is seen sliding off the world (no longer able to hold its balance) her fragments overspread with the label, DATE OBOLUM BELISARIO."

On one thing, however, the agent was determined; he would attend no more the levees of any of the ministers. Some proper show of resentment, both for personal and national reasons, was plainly necessary. "I made no justification of myself from the charges brought against me," he afterward explained to his son, in detailing this period of his public service; "I made no return of the injury.by abusing my adversaries; but held a cool, sullen silence, reserving myself to some future opportunity." And now and then he had the satisfaction of hearing that the" reasonable part of the administration" were ashamed of the way in which they had treated him. Perhaps, too, the "reasonable part of the administration" had enough common sense to view with alarm the spirit of revenge displayed toward the colonies by the " unreasonable part" of their official family. For we must not forget that in the spring of 1774 Lord North brought into Parliament, and had passed, that vindictive bill closing the port of Boston until such time as order was restored and indemnification made for the tea so

66

merrily pitched into the water. Two other oppressive measures, more sweeping in scope and no less iniquitous, were likewise enacted; furthermore, General Gage arrived in Boston to relieve the despised Hutchinson (who went to England to confer with the Government); and by midsummer vessels