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with some flints, lead, swan-shot, and a barrel of gunpowder. The arms will be under your care and Mr. Wiser's, you being gentlemen in commission from the governor. Keep an account whose hands you put them into let them be prudent, sober, careful men, such as will not rashly hurt our friends with them, and such as will honestly return them when peace shall be happily restored. I sincerely commiserate the distress of your outsettlers. The assembly sit to-morrow, and there is no room to doubt of their hearty endeavours to do every thing necessary for the country's safety. I wish the same disposition may be found in the governor, and I hope it. I have put off my journey to Virginia, and you may depend on my best services for the common welfare, so far as my little influence extends.

"I am your affectionate kinsman and humble servant,

"B. FRANKLIN. "My best respects to Mr. Wiser; 900 arms with ammunition have been sent up by the Committee of Assembly, to different parts of the frontier."

This correspondence shows, that the Indians were not as docile and attached to the white people as is commonly supposed. The settlements were for many years unsafe on the frontier, and so continued down to the revolution.

B. Franklin to Messrs. Wiser, &c.

"EASTON, Dec. 30th, 1775.

"Gentlemen—We are just on the point of setting out for Bethlehem, in our way to Reading, where we propose to be (God willing) on Thursday evening. The commissioners are all well, and thank you for the concern you express for their welfare. We hope to have the pleasure of finding you well. No news this way, except that Aaron Dupuis's barn was burnt last week, the Indians still keeping near those parts.

"In haste, gentlemen, your humble servant,

"Messrs. Wiser, Seely, and Read.

"B. FRANKLIN.

66

INSTRUCTIONS.

"Monday morning, 10 o'clock.

"The fifty arms now sent are all furnished with staples for sling straps, that if he governor should order a troop or company of rangers on horseback, the pieces may be slung at the horseman's back.

"If dogs are carried out with any party, they should be large, strong, and fierce; and every dog led in a slip string, to prevent their tiring themselves by running out and in, and discovering the party by barking at squirrels, &c. Only when the party come near thick woods and suspicious places, they should turn out a dog or two to search them. In case of meeting a party of the enemy, the dogs are all then to be turned loose and set on. They will be fresher and finer for having been previously confined, and will confound the enemy a good deal, and be very serviceable. This was the Spanish method of guarding their marches.

"A party on the scout should observe several rules to avoid being tracked and surprised in their encampments at night. This may be done sometimes when they come to a creek or run, by entering the run and travelling up the stream or

down the stream, in the water, a mile or two, and then encamp, the
stream effacing the track, and the enemy at a loss to know whether the
party went up or down. Suppose a party marching from A intends to
halt at B, they do not go straight to B and stop there, but pass by at
some little distance, and make a turn which brings them thither. Be-
tween B and C two or three sentinels are placed to watch the track,
and give immediate notice at B, if they perceive any party pass by in
pursuit, with an account of the number, &c., which enables the party
of B to prepare and attack them if they judge that proper, or gives them
time to escape.
But I add no more of this kind, recollecting that Mr.
Wiser must be much better acquainted with all these things than I am.

B

“Yours, &c. "Would it not be better for the people in each district, township, or neighbourhood, to collect their families, stock, grain, and fodder, in some proper place in the neighbourhood, and make a stockaded enclosure, and remain there during the winter. I say, would not this be better than leaving every thing to be destroyed by the Indians, and coming down into the thicker settlements to beg for subsistence?

"You are to dispose of the arms for the best defence of the people, where they are most wanted, and with the governor's approbation. Half-past 12 P. M."

B. Franklin to Samuel Rhoads.

"FORT ALLEN, Jan. 26, 1756.

"DEAR FRIEND-I am extremely obliged by your kind concern expressed for my safety and welfare. We marched hither with the greatest caution, through some passes in the mountains that were very dangerous, if the enemy had opposed, and we had been careless. Hitherto God has blessed and preserved us. We have built one pretty strong fort, and by the end of next week, or in ten days, hope to finish two more, one on each side of this, and at fifteen miles distance. These, I suppose, will complete the projected line from Delaware to the Susquehanna. I then purpose, God willing, to return homewards, and enjoy the pleasures I promise myself, of finding my friends well. Till then adieu.

Yours affectionately,

"My love to all the Wrights."

B. FRANKLIN.

These prefatory notices are intended to elucidate the history and unfold the character of the American patriarch, as well as to bring new facts into view, and to combat prejudices which have prevailed in a most extraordinary manner, not only against his philosophical but his moral reputation; they are necessarily desultory, and without disregarding the order of time, are still governed more by subject than date. The controversies which arose between the proprietary government and the assembly, in the colonial period, had involved Franklin in the censure which opposing parties always bestow on each other; there his moderation and good temper had always neutralized; where, as may be seen in the appendix to his History of Pennsylvania, his talents and reputation caused him to be sent as agent of Pennsylvania near the British court. His conduct in England is exemplified throughout by sagacity, intelligence, and prudence, blended with courage of a rare kind; the confidence of the Earl of Chatham counterpoised the

rence.

hostility of the court; but his refusal of the place of under-secretary of state for the colonies, by showing that he was incorruptible, made him an object of abnorNo other evidence need be referred to, than the conduct of Wedderburne, on his appearance before the privy council, on the affair of the celebrated letters, see vol. I. p. 87 of this edition..

The constancy and courage of a man was never more steadfast than that of Dr. Franklin on this occasion. The malignity of Wedderburne sought to fix a stigma by resorting to a classical allusion, and attempting to transfer it to the man whose virtue had excited ministerial hatred. Though the allusion is well understood by men of erudition, it cannot be amiss, on this occasion, to give a concise explanation of it. Pliny, b. xviii. c. 3. reports an Athenian custom of branding slaves convicted of certain offences on the forehead; or if for theft, on the hand with which the theft was committed; those thus marked, as Pliny expresses it, were inscripti trium literarum—the man of three letters, referring to the three initial letters, IT L, impressed on the culprit. Besides the malignity of Wedderburne's invective, the inapplicability of the wretched pun made the cause of the government ridiculous in the eyes of all liberal men. The triumph of the republic was not necessary to counteract the malice; and time has testified to the uprightness of the American agent. It was known to the writer of this article in 1798, that those letters had been placed in the hands of the American agent by Dr. Williamson, who died a few years since at New York, and disclosed the fact before his death. The mission of Dr. Franklin to the court of France gave extreme mortification to the British ministers. Whether the attempts made to poison him by a present of wine, or the attempt to seduce him into a meeting at one of the churches, was the act of the ministers, or of some assassins, who sought the assassination under expectations of reward, cannot now be ascertained, nor indeed is it necessary; and the facts are noticed here only as they appear to have been in the same spirit which operated on the court of St. James's to retard negotiations, merely because Dr. Franklin, the trium literarum homo, must have been the negotiator. This difficulty was attempted to be explained away by the ministers, who alleged that there was no person in Europe accredited by full powers to conclude a treaty of peace.

On this occasion it was that a man of some celebrity, but who merited much more than has been rendered him, volunteered to clear away this pretext. Thomas Pownall, who had been some time governor of Massachusetts,-who knew America well and Franklin intimately, had the courage to apprize the ministry that there was a man in Europe ready and willing, and duly authorized to treat for peace. This was done in a memorial, dated at Richmond, Jan. 1, 1782, and contains this striking paragraph:

"Your memorialist, from his experience in the business, from information of the state of things, being convinced that a preliminary negotiation may be commenced; from his knowledge of the persons with whom such matters must be negotiated, as men with whom it was once his duty to act, with whom he has acted, with whom he has negotiated business of the crown, and whom, however habile and dexterous he found them, he always experienced to be of good faith; as men who have known your memorialist in business, and will have that confidence in him which is necessary to the gestion of affairs."

Governor Pownall was not listened to, though no man was better qualified to

advise by experience in American affairs and upright disposition. In a memorial which he had previously published concerning America, he predicted the progress, and growth, and grandeur of the United States. "He who has observed the progress of the new world," said Governor Pownall," will know that this is true, and will have seen many a real philosopher, a politician, and a warrior emerge out of this wilderness, as the seed riseth out of the ground, where the grain lies buried for a season. I hope no one will so misunderstand this, as to take it for a fancy drawing of what may be ; it is a lineal and exact portrait of what actually exists."

In the printed preface to this memorial, the governor has taken care to be more explicit. After discussing the evils of a bad administration, and the benefits which flow from good great men in authority, he says, "It is for that reason I will set Henry IV. of France at the head of the list; one has heard of a Tully, a Fleury, a Clarendon, a Somers, a De Witt, and a ; and for the good of mankind,

one would hope that such men, in all countries where they can act, may never be wanting to continue the list."

On the margin of the printed page in which this passage appears, the space in a ruled line is filled up with the word FRANKLIN, and below in the governor's handwriting, these words :-" I have written in the name which was intended for that space.'

Among the moral allegories in this and in former editions, is a parable very much celebrated, and justly, from the force and delicacy of its application: it is that of Abraham and the Stranger. Very soon after the revolution had terminated in a peace, and while yet the resentments of those who had been self-exiled by hostility to the freedom of their country were still fresh and rancorous, several publications of a criminatory and vituperative kind were published in England. Two works of this description, both written by clergymen, appeared; the first, a memoir of the Life of Dr. Franklin, professing to be a continuation.of the memoirs by himself; this was published in French, and distributed in France for political purposes, in which odium theologicum was so extravagant as to furnish its own antidote. The second was entitled, "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution, by Jonathan Boucher, M. A." &c., in which the parable against persecution was charged upon the venerable Franklin as a palpable plagiarism; copied from the Polemical Discourses of Jeremy Taylor, folio 1674, p. 1078. The editor of a recent English epitome of Franklin's memoirs has renewed the story, with an expression of surprise that his grandson should not have rectified the error.

Perhaps the present occasion may be a suitable one to place this matter on its proper foundation. The general source of misapprehension on this topic, arises out of the assumption that Dr. Franklin premeditatedly published this parable as an original composition of his own. Upon this point it would be enough to say, that Dr. Franklin never published any edition of his own productions; that those editions which appeared at various times were issued by other persons, to whom, when asked, he communicated whatever was sought and within his power; deriving no emolument whatever from any of them.

In the works of Lord Kaimes, in a chapter on education, he published a version of the parable on persecution: Parson Boucher first alleged that "Franklin claimed it as his own." This allegation is a mere assumption; there is nothing to

verify it, any more than that he who quoted prose or verse from Pope or Dryden, illustrative of some moral principle, must be considered as appropriating the verse as his own. Lord Kaimes simply says, "the following parable against persecution was communicated to me by Dr. Franklin." This doth not substantiate the allegation of a claim to be its author; it was communicated as an illustration of benevolence and toleration, without any other intimation. Lord Kaimes states simply by whom it was communicated, and so descants on it.

It is very certain that there were two different versions of such a parable, one of the Persian poet Sadi, and written so early as A. D. 1256; and a second, of Jeremy Taylor, published in 1674. That the leading ideas and moral inferences were alike in both, and differed only in their idiomatic construction, is indisputable, and that they both merited the regard and approbation of all good men. The version of the parable in the Bostaan of the Persian poet Sadi, is more oriental and circumlocutory; and not required to be presented here. That of Jeremy Taylor is given with a view to afford the reader an opportunity of judging on the merits of the version, said by Dr. Taylor to have been " found in the Jewish books." The version is as follows: "When Abraham sat at his tent door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man, stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age: he received him kindly and washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to sit down; but observing the old man ate and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing to his meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven? The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God. At which answer Abraham grew so jealousy angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night, and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and asked where the stranger was? He replied, I thrust him away, because he would not worship thee. God answered him, I have suffered him those hundred years, although he dishonoured me; and couldst thou not endure him one night, when he gave thee no trouble? Upon this, saith the story, Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction. Go thou and do likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham." We shall here give the version as published by Lord Kaimes, and shall annex, in another column, a different and much improved version, which we copy from the edition corrected by Dr. Franklin, for the use of Mr. Vaughan. A comparison of Dr. Taylor's version with the first, and the improvements in the scriptural style, arrangement into numbered verses, and the still stronger point and effect given to the moral, will at least amount to this, that if it was a copy, it was a very much improved one, and in every respect better adapted to the nature of a moral apologue than that of Sadi or Dr. Taylor.

Lord Kaimes's version.

And it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat in the door of his tent about the going down of the sun, and behold a man bent with age, coming from the way of the wilderness, leaning on his staff. And Abraham arose and met him, and said unto him, Turn in, I pray thee,

Last version by Dr. Franklin.

1. And it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat in the door of his tent about the going down of the sun.

2. And behold a man bowed with age, came from the way of the wilderness, leaning on a staff.

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