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To GEORGE WHEATLEY, ESQ. TREASURER OF THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, LONDON."

Tract on the Principles of Trade.-Foundling Hospital. -Double Spectacles.

Passy, near Paris, Aug. 21, 1784. ›

MY DEAR OLD FRIEND,

i received your kind letter of May 3-83. 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 favourite charity does not go on as you could wish it. It is shrunk indeed by your admitting only 60 children in a year. What you have told your brethren respecting America is true. If you find it

The Foundling Hospital.

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 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, B. FRANKLIN.

Το **2

General Melvill.-Profession of Faith.-The old Testa

DEAR SIR,

ment.

Passy, August 21, 1784. 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

'See a particular description of the same in letter to George Wheatley, Esq. May 23, 1785.

2 Supposed to Dr. Priestly.

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, I was glad to hear that you possessed a comfortable retire, ment, 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 constitutions 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 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

Judges, Chap. iv.

2

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 ?

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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, &c. B. FRANKLIN,

To B. VAUGHAN, ESQ.

Introduction of Count Mirabeau.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Passy, Sept. 7, 1784. This will be delivered to you by Count Mirabeau ;3 son of the Marquis of that name, author of 'L'Ami des Hommes. This gentleman is esteemed here, and I recommend him to your civilities and counsels, particularly with respect to the printing of a piece he has written on the subject of hereditary nobility, on occasion of the order of Cincinnati lately attempted to be established in America, which cannot be printed here. I find that some of the best judges think it extremely well written,

I Theophilus Lindsey M. A.

A Dissenting Minister at Wapping, who afterwards turned to the profession of the Law. He published one or two sermons. 3 The same who afterwards so eminently distinguished himself by his eloquence in the early part of the French Revolution.

with great clearness, force and elegance. If you can recommend him to an honest, reasonable bookseller, that will undertake it, you will do him service, and perhaps some to mankind, who are too much bigotted in many countries to that kind of imposition.—I had formerly almost resolved to trouble you with no more letters of recommendation: but I think you will find this gentleman to possess talents, that may render his acquaintance agreeable. With sincere esteem, I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN.

To B. VAUGHAN, ESQ.

On Manufactures,-Books,—and loose Printing. DEAR FRIEND,

Passy, April 21, 1785.

I received your kind letter to the 23d past, by Mr. Perry, with the other bottle of Blackrie. I thank you much for your care in sending them. I should have been glad to be of any use to Mr. Perry; but he had placed his children before I saw him, and he staid with me only a few minutes.

We see much in parliamentary proceedings, and in papers and pamphlets, of the injury the concessions to Ireland will do to the manufacturers of England, while the people of England seem to be forgotten, as if quite out of the question. If the Irish can manufacture cottons, and stuffs, and silks, and linens, and cutlery, and toys, and books, &c. &c. &c. so as to sell them cheaper in England than the manufacturers of England sell them, is not this good for the people of England, who are not manufacturers? And will not even the manufacturers themselves share the benefit? Since if cottons are cheaper, all the

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