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to turn him out of doors, and take the reins | the common dirt of the room, and carried in of government into her own hands.

There is a much better contrivance than this of the philosopher; which is, to cover the walls of the house with paper; this is generally done, and though it cannot abolish, it at least shortens, the period of female dominion. The paper is decorated with flowers of various fancies, and made so ornamental, that the women have admitted the fashion without perceiving the design.

There is also another alleviation of the husband's distress; he generally has the privilege of a small room or closet for his books and papers, the key of which he is allowed to keep. This is considered as a privileged place, and stands like the land of Goshen amid the plagues of Egypt. But then he must be extremely cautious, and ever on his guard. For should he inadvertently go abroad and leave the key in his door, the housemaid, who is always on the watch for such an opportunity, immediately enters in triumph with buckets, brooms, and brushes; takes possession of the premises, and forthwith puts all his books and papers to rights to his utter confusion, and sometimes serious detriment. For instance:

a rubbish pan into the yard. The tradesman had neglected to enter the credit in his book; the defendant could find nothing to obviate the charge, and so judgment went against him for the debt and costs. A fortnight after the whole was settled, and the money paid, one of the children found the receipt among the rubbish in the yard.

There is also another custom peculiar to the city of Philadelphia, and nearly allied to the former. I mean that of washing the pavement before the doors every Saturday evening. I at first took this to be a regulation of the police; but on a further inquiry find it is a religious rite, preparatory to the Sabbath; and is, I believe, the only religious rite in which the numerous sectaries of this city perfectly agree. The ceremony begins about sunset, and continues till about ten or eleven at night. It is very difficult for a stranger to walk the streets on those evenings; he runs a continual risk of having a bucket of dirty water thrown against his legs: but a Philadelphian born is so much accustomed to the danger, that he avoids it with surprising dexterity. It is from this circumstance that a Philadelphian may be known anywhere by his gait. The streets of New York are paved with rough stones; these indeed are not washed, but the dirt is so thoroughly swept from before the doors, that the stones stand up sharp and prominent, to the great inconvenience of those who are not accustomed to so rough a path. But habit reconciles every thing. It is diverting enough to see a Philadelphian at New York; he walks the streets with as much painful caution, as if his toes were covered with

a New Yorker, as little approving the plain masonry of Philadelphia, shuffles along the pavement like a parrot on a mahogany table.

A gentleman was sued by the executors of a tradesman, on a charge found against him in the deceased's books, to the amount of £30. The defendant was strongly impressed with an idea that he had discharged the debt and taken a receipt; but, as the transaction was of long standing, he knew not where to find the receipt. The suit went on in course, and the time approached when judgment would be obtained against him. He then sat seriously down to examine a large bundle of old papers, which he had un-corns, or his feet lamed with the gout: while tied and displayed on a table for that purpose. In the midst of his search, he was suddenly called away on business of importance; he forgot to lock the door of his room. The house-maid, who had been long looking out for such an opportunity, immediately entered with the usual implements, and with great alacrity fell to cleaning the room, and putting things to rights. The first object that struck her eye was the confused situation of the papers on the table, these were without delay bundled together like so many dirty knives and forks; but in the action a small piece of paper fell unnoticed on the floor, which happened to be the very receipt in question as it had no very respectable appearance, it was soon after swept out with

It must be acknowledged, that the ablutions I have mentioned are attended with no small inconvenience; but the women would not be induced, from any consideration, to resign their privilege. Notwithstanding this, I can give you the strongest assurances, that the women of America make the most faithful wives and the most attentive mothers in the world; and I am sure you will join me in opinion, that if a married man is made miserable only one week in a whole year, he will have no great cause to complain of the matrimonial bond.

I am. &c.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

ON

POLITICAL PUBLICATIONS PRIOR TO THE REVOLUTION,

COLLECTED

FROM THE AUTOGRAPH NOTES OF DR. FRANKLIN, AS MATERIALS FOR
ARGUMENT OR REPLY.

Hints for a Reply to the Protests of certain Members of the House of Lords against the Repeal of the Stamp Act.

FIRST PROTEST.

We have submitted to your laws,-no proof of our acknowledgment of your power to make them; rather an acknowledgment of their reasonableness, or of our own weakness.-Post-office came as a matter of utility, -was aided by the legislature. Mean to take advantage of our ignorance. Children should not be imposed on; are not, even by honest shopkeepers. A great and magnanimous nation should disdain to govern by tricks and traps, that would disgrace a pettifogging attorney.

Settlement of the colonies stated. Parliament not consulted;-not till after the restoration, except by rebel Parliament. Anxious about preserving the sovereignty of this country? Rather be so about preserving the liberty. We shall be so about the liberty of America, that your posterity may have a free country to come to, where they will be received with open arms. King, the sovereign, cannot take in his

In the ATHENEUM at Philadelphia are many volumes of pamphlets, which formerly belonged to Dr Franklin. Some of these are curious from the manuscript notes they contain in the margin. A few specimens have been selected for publication, both as having an historical interest, and as being peculiarly characteristic of their author.

It should here also be observed, that the notes con

tained in these pamphlets were penned at the very time when he was supposed, by some persons either unfriendly to his character or ignorant of his motives,

to be secretly acting a part in England more accord

ant to his private aims, than to the high duties of a

true lover of his country. From the tone, temper, and substance of these notes, let the reader judge with

what justice such suspicions have been entertained. and such insinuations hazarded to the public. As mere private records of his thoughts prompted by the impulse of the moment, without any design of their ever seeing the light, they must be admitted to reveal

his true sentiments, and to exhibit the unbiassed work

ings of his mind.

The above HINTS" are found in the margin of Dr.

Franklin's printed copy of the Protests, written at the time (1766), from which it would appear that it was his intention to make a formal answer to these Protests. This purpose, it is believed, was never exe. cuted.

Parliament; at least can give no greater power than he had himself.

Compliment the lords. Not a wiser or better body of men on earth. The deep re spect impressed on me by the instance ] have been witness to of their justice. They have been misled by misinformation. Proof of my opinion of their goodness, in the freedom with which I propose to examine their protests.

The trust of taxing America was never reposed by the people of America in the legislature of Great Britain. They had one kind of confidence, indeed, in that legislature, that it would never attempt to tax them without their consent. The law was destructive of that confidence among them. Other advantages of colonies besides commerce. Selfishness of commercial views.

The sovereignty of the crown I understand. The sovereignty of the British legislature out of Britain I do not understand.

The fear of being thought weak is a timidity and weakness of the worst sort, as it betrays into a persisting in errors, that may be much more mischievous, than the appearance of weakness. A great and powerful state, like this, has no cause for such timidity.

Acknowledging and correcting an error shows great magnanimity. Small states and small republics cannot afford to do so.

America not in the realm of England or Great Britain? No man in America thinks himself exempt from the jurisdiction of the crown, and of the assemblies, or has any such private judgment.

The agitation of the question of rights makes it now necessary to settle a constitution for the colonies. Restrictions should be only for the general good. Endeavour to convince reasonable creatures by reason. Try your hands with me.

Never think of it. They are reasonable creatures. Reasonable laws will not require force.

501

I observe two or three Scotch lords pro- ter be trusted. Have rather an interest in test. Many more voted against the repeal. suppressing smugglers. Nature of smugColonies settled before the union. Query; gling. It is picking of pockets. All oppresIf the Parliament had a jurisdiction over the sions take their rise from some plea of utility; colonies by the first settlement, had they a often in appearance only. right to introduce new legislators? Could they sell or commute the right with other nations? Can they introduce the peers of Ireland and Commons, and the States of Holland, and make them legislators of the colonies? How could Scotland acquire a right to legislation over English colonies, but by consent of the colonies themselves?

I am a subject of the crown of Great Britain, have ever been a loyal one,-have partaken of its favours. I write here with freedom, relying on the magnanimity of Parliament. I say nothing to your lordships, that I have not been indulged to say to the Commons. Your lordships' names are to your Protest, therefore I think I ought to put mine to the answer.-Desire what I have said may not be imputed to the colonies. I am a private person, and do not write by their direction. I am over here to solicit, in behalf of my colony, a closer communication with the crown.

SECOND PROTEST.

TALK with Bollan on this head. Query; Courts of common law? Particular colonies drained, all drained, as it would all come home. Those, that would pay most of the tax, would have least of it spent at home. It must go to the conquered colonies. The view of maps deceives.

All breach of the constitution. Juries bet

The clamour of multitudes. It is good to attend to it. It is wiser to foresee and avoid it. It is wise, when neither foreseen nor avoided, to correct the measures that give occasion to it. Glad the majority have that wisdom.

Wish your lordships had attended to that other great article of the palladium; "Taxes shall not be laid but by common consent in Parliament." We Americans were not here to give our consent.

My duty to the king, and justice to my country, will, I hope, justify me, if I likewise protest, which I now do with all humility in behalf of myself and of every American, and of our posterity, against your Declaratory Bill, that the Parliament of Great Britain has not, never had, and of right never can have, without consent, given either before or after, power to make laws of sufficient force to bind the subjects in America in any case whatever, and particularly in

taxation.

I can only judge of others by myself. I have some little property in America. I will freely spend nineteen shillings in the pound to defend my right of giving or refusing the other shilling; and, after all, if I cannot defend that right, I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the boundless woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence to any man, who can bait a hook, or pull a trigger.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

PASSAGES IN A PAMPHLET ENTITLED "GOOD HUMOUR, OR A WAY WITH THE COLONIES.-LONDON 1766."*

"THE reply of the Governor of Massachusetts to the assembly's answer is in the same consistent style; and affords still a stronger proof, as well as of his own ingenuity, honour, and integrity, as of the furious and enthusiastic spirit of the province."

They knew the governor to be, as it after

* Th passages included within quotation marks are extracts from the pamphlet, and the sentence following each contains Dr. Franklin's observations.

ward's turned out, their enemy and calumniator in private letters to government here.

"It had been more becoming the state of the colonies, always dear to Britain, and ever cherished and defended by it, to have remonstrated in terms of filial duty and obedience."

How ignorant is this writer of facts! How many of their remonstrances were rejected! "They must give us leave in our turn to ex

tion."

There never was any occasion of legal exemption from what they never had been subject to.

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cept against their demonstration of legal excmp-|terest, one of them may endeavour to impose on the other, may cheat him in the accounts, may draw to himself more than his share of the profits, may put upon the other more than an equal share of the expense and burden. Their having a common interest is no security Great Britain have a common interest, and against such injustice. The landholders of yet they injure one another in the inequality of the land tax. The majority in Parliament, being favoured in the proportions, will never consent to do justice to the minority by a more equal assessment.

But then it is to be further observed, that this same method of arguing is equally favourable to governors as governed, and to the mother

country as the colonies."

Here is the old mistake of all these writers. The people of the mother country are subjects, not governors. The king only is sovereign in both countries.

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The colonies will no longer think it equitable to insist upon immunities which the people of Great Britain do not enjoy."

Why not, if they have a right to them? "To claim a right of being taxed by their assemblies only, appears to have too much the air of independence; and though they are not represented here, would give them an immunity beyond the inhabitants of this island."

It is a right, however; what signifies what air it has? The inhabitants being freeholders ought to have the same. If they have it not, they are injured. Then rectify what is amiss among yourselves; and do not make it a justification of more wrong.

"Or could they hope to procure any advantages from one hundred representatives! Common sense answers all this in the negative."

"But what reasonable ground of apprehension can there be, that the British Parliament should be ignorant of so plain a matter, as that the interests of Britain and the colonies are the

same

If the Parliament is so knowing and so just, how comes it to restrain Ireland in its inanufactures, America in its trade? Why may not an Irishman or an American make the same manufactures, and carry them to the same ports as an Englishman? In many instances Britain shows a selfish regard to her own interest, in prejudice of the colonies. America therefore has no confidence in her equity.

"But I can conceive no earthly security better, none indeed so good, as that which depends upon the wisdom and integrity of a British king

and Parliament."

Why not, as well as Scotland from forty- hereditary, as those of the House of Lords; Suppose seats in your House of Commons five, or rather sixty-one? Common sense on the contrary, says, that a body of one hun- or suppose the Commons to be nominated by the king, or chosen by the lords; could dred votes in Parliament will always be worth the attention of any ministry; and the you then rely upon them? If your members fear of offending them will make every min-were to be chosen by the people of Ireland, ister cautious of injuring the rights of their country, lest they join with his opposers in

Parliament.

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could you then rely upon them? Could you depend upon their wisdom and integrity, as a security, the best possible, for your rights? And wherein is our case different, if the peo

Therefore the interest of Great Britain and ple of England choose legislators for the that of the colonies is the same." people of America ?

All this argument of the interest of Britain and the colonies being the same is fallacious and unsatisfactory. Partners in trade have a common interest, which is the same, the flourishing of the partnership business; but they may, moreover, have each a separate interest, and, in pursuit of that separate in

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If they have a spark of virtue left, they will blush to be found in a posture of hostility against Great Britain."

There was no posture of hostility in America, but Britain put herself in a posture of hostility against America. Witness the landing of the troops in Boston, 1768.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

PASSAGES IN "A LETTER FROM A MERCHANT IN LONDON TO HIS NEPHEW IN NORTH AMERICA.-LONDON, 1766.”

“THE honest indignation you express against | those artifices and frauds, those robberies and insults, which lost us the hearts and affections of the Indians, is particularly to be commended; for these were the things, as you justly observed, which involved us in the most bloody and expensive war that ever was known."

This is wickedly intended by the author, Dean Tucker, to represent the North Americans as the cause of the war. Whereas, it was in fact begun by the French, who seized the goods and persons of the English traders on the Ohio, who encroached on the king's land in Nova Scotia, and took a fort from the Ohio Company by force of arms, which induced England to make reprisals at sea, and to send Braddock to recover the fort on the Ohio, whence came on the war.

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ever an Englishman resides, that country is England. While an Englishman resides in England, he is undoubtedly subject to its laws. If he goes into a foreign country, he is subject to the laws and government he finds there. If he finds no government or laws there, he is subject there to none, till he and his companions, if he has any, make laws for themselves; and this was the case of the first settlers in America. Otherwise, and if they carried the English laws and power of Parliament with them, what advantage could the Puritans propose to themselves by going, since they would have been as subject to bishops, spiritual courts, tythes, and statutes relating to the church, in America, as in England? Can the dean, on his principles, tell how it happens that those laws, the game acts, the statutes for labourers, and an infinity of others, made before and since the emigration, are not in force in force in America, nor ever were ?

"Now, upon the first settling of an English colony, and before ever you Americans could have chosen any representatives, and therefore before any assembly of such representatives could have possibly met,-to whose laws and to what legislative power were you then subject? To the English, most undoubtedly; for you could have been subject to no other."

By the spirit of Magna Charta all taxes laid on by Parliament are constitutional, legal taxes." There is no doubt but taxes laid by Parliament, where the Parliament has jurisdiction, are legal taxes; but does it follow, that taxes laid by the Parliament of England on Scotland before the union, on Guernsey, Jersey, Ireland, Hanover, or any other doininions of the crown, not within the realm, are therefore legal? These writers against the colonies all bewilder themselves by supposing the colonies within the realm, which is not the case, nor ever was. This then is the spirit of the constitution, that taxes the fact. The colonies carried no law with The author here appears quite ignorant of shall not be laid without the consent of those them; they carried only a power of making to be taxed. The colonies were not then in laws, or adopting such parts of the Eng. being, and therefore nothing relating to them lish law or any other law, as they should could be literally expressed. As the Ameri- think suitable to their circumstances. The cans are now without the realm, and not of first settlers of Connecticut, for instance, at the jurisdiction of Parliament, the spirit of their first meeting in that country, finding the British constitution dictates, that they themselves out of all jurisdiction of other should be taxed only by their own represen-governments, resolved and enacted, that, till tatives, as the English are by theirs.

"Now the first emigrants, who settled in America, were certainly English subjects, subject to the laws and jurisdiction of Parliament, and consequently to parliamentary taxes, before the emigration, and therefore subject afterwards, unless some legal constitutional exemption can be produced."

a code of laws should be prepared and agreed to, they would be governed by the law of Moses, as contained in the Old Testament.

If the first settlers had no right to expect a better constitution than the English, what fools were they for going over, to encounter all the hardships and perils of new settlements in a wilderness! For these were so This position supposes, that Englishmen many additions to what they suffered at can never be out of the jurisdiction of Parlia- home from tyrannical and oppressive instiment. It may as well be said, that wher-tutions in church and state; with a subtrac

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