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To W. STRAHAN, Esq. M. P. KING'S PRINTER,

LONDON.

Suggestions as to the deplorable situation of the English

DEAR SIR,

government.

Passy, Feb. 16, 1784. I received and read with pleasure your kind let-· ter of the first instant, as it informed me of the welfare of you and yours. I am glad the accounts you have from your kinswoman at Philadelphia are agreeable, and I shall be happy if any recommendations from me can be serviceable to Dr. Ross, or any others, friends of yours going to Anierica.

Your arguments persuading me to come once more to England, are very powerful. To be sure I long to see again my friends there, whom I love abundantly: but there are difficulties and objections of several kinds, which at present I don't see how to get over.

I lament with you the political disorders England at present labors under. Your papers are full of strange accounts of anarchy and confusion in America, of which we know nothing, while your own affairs are really in a deplorable situation. In my humble opinion, the root of the evil lies not so much in too long, or too unequally chosen parliaments, as in the enormous salaries, emoluments, and patronage of your great officers; and that you will never be at rest till they are all abolished, and every place of honor made at the same time, instead of a place of profit, a place of expense and burthen. Ambition and avarice are each of them strong passions, and when they are united in the same persons, and have the same objects in view for their gratification, they are too strong for public spirit and love of country, and are apt to produce the most violent factions and contentions. They should therefore be separated, and made to act one against the other.

Those places, to speak in our old style (brother type) may be good for the CHAPEL but they are bad for the master, as they create constant quarrels that hinder the business. For example, here are two months that your government has been employed in getting its form to press; which is not yet fit to work on, every page of it being squabbled, and the whole ready to fall into pye. The founts too must be very scanty, or strangely out of sorts, since your compositors cannot find either upper or lower-case letters sufficient to set the word ADMINISTRATION, but are forced to be continually turning for them. However, to return to common (though perhaps too saucy) language, don't despair; you have still one resource left, and that not a bad one, since it may re-unite the empire. We have some remains of affection for you, and shall always be ready to receive and take care of you in case of distress. So if you have not sense and virtue enough to govern yourselves, e'en dissolve your present old crazy constitution and send members to congress.

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You will say my advice " smells of Madeira." right. This foolish letter is mere chit-chat between ourselves, over the second bottle. If, therefore, you show it to any body, (except our indulgent friends, Dagge and lady Strachan) I will positively solles you. Yours ever most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN.

DEAR SIR,

TO HENRY LAURENS, Esq.

Passy, March 12, 1784. I write this in great pain from the gout in both feet; but my young friend your son having informed me that he sets out for London to-morrow, I could not slip the opportunity, as perhaps it is the only safe one that may occur before your departure for America. I wish mine was as near. I think I have reason to complain that I am so long without

an answer from congress to my request of recal. I wish rather to die in my own country than here; and though the upper part of the building appears yet tolerably firm, yet being undermined by the stone and gout united, its fall cannot be far distant. You are so good as to offer me your friendly services. You cannot do me one more acceptable at present than that of forwarding my dismission. In all other respects as well as that, I shall ever look on your friendship as an honor to me; being with sincere and great esteem,

dear sir, &c. &c.

March 13, 1784.

P. S. Having had a tolerable night, I find myself something better this morning. In reading over my letter, I perceive an omission of my thanks for your kind assurances of never forsaking my defence, should there be need. I apprehend that the violent antipathy of a certain person to me may have produced some calumnies, which what you have seen and heard here may enable you to refute. You will thereby exceedingly oblige one, who has lived beyond all other ambition than that of dying with the fair character he has long endeavored to deserve. As to my infallibility, which you do not undertake to maintain, I am too modest myself to claim it, that is, in general; though when we come to particulars, I, like other people, give it up with difficulty. Steele says, that the difference between the church of Rome and the church of England on that point is only this; that the one pretends to be infallible, and the other to be never in the wrong. In this latter sense we are most of us church of England men, though few of us confess it, and express it so naturally and frankly as a certain lady here, who said, I don't know how it happens, but I meet with nobody except myself,

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that is always in the right. Je ne trouve que moi qui a tou jours raison

My grandson joins me in affectionate respects to you and the young lady: with best wishes for your health and prospe rity. Yours, B. FRANKLIN.

SIR,

TO MR. WALTER, PRINTER, LONDON;

On the logographical mode of printing.

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Passy, April 17, 1784.

I have received a book, for which I understand I am obliged to you, the Introduction to Logography. I have read it with attention, and as far as I understand it, am much pleased with it. I do not perfectly comprehend the arrangement of his cases; but the reduction of the number of pieces by the roots of words, and their different terminations, is extremely ingenious; and I like much the idea of cementing the letters, instead of casting words or syllables, which I formerly attempted and succeeded in, having invented a mould and method by which I could in a few minutes form a matrice and adjust it, of any word in any fount at pleasure, and proceed to cast from it. I send enclosed a specimen of some of my terminations, and would willingly instruct Mr. Johnson in the method if he desired it, but he has a better. He mentions some improvements that have been proposed, but takes no notice of one published here at Paris, in 1776; so I suppose he has neither seen nor heard of it. It is in a quarto pamphlet, intitled, Nouveau Systême Typographique, ou Moyen de diminuer de moitié, dans toutes les Imprimeries de l'Europe, le travail et les frais de Composition, de Correction, et de Distribution, découvert en 1774, par Madame de ***. Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora. A Puris, de L'Imprimerie Royale, MDCCLXXVI. It is dedicated to

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the king, who was at the expense of the experiments. Two commissaries were named to examine and render an account of them; they were M. Desmarets, of the Academy of Sciences, and M. Barbou, an eminent printer. Their report concludes thus: "Nous nous contenterons de dire ici que M. de Saint Paul a rempli les engagemens qu'il avoit contractés avec le Gouvernement; que ses expériences projetées ont été conduites avec beaucoup de méthode et d'intelligence de sa part; et que par des calculs longs et pénibles, qui sont le fruit d'un grand nombre de combinaisons raisonnées, il en a déduit plusieurs résultats qui méritent d'être proposés aux artistes, et qui nous paroissent propres à éclairer la pratique de l'imprimerie actuelle, et à en abréger certainement les procédés. Son projet ne peut que gagner aux contradictions qu'il essuiera sans doute, de la part des gens de l'art. A Paris, le 8 Janvier, 1776." The pamphlet consists of sixty-six pages, containing a number of tables of words and parts of words, explanations of those tables, calculations, answers to objections, &c. I will endeavor to get one to send you if you desire it: mine is bound up with others in a volume. It was after seeing this piece that I cast the syllables I send you a sample of. I have not heard that any of the printers here make at present the least use of the invention of Madame de ***. You will observe t that it pretended only to lessen the work by one-half; Mr. Johnson's method lessens it three-fourths. I should be glad to know with what the letters are cemented. I think cementing better than casting them together, because if one letter happens to be battered, it may be taken away and another cemented in its place. I received no letter with the pamphlet. I am, sir, &c. B. FRANKLIN.

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