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I have given Dr. Denormandie a recommendation to a friend in Geneva, for which place he set out this morning; and I shall be glad of any opportunity of serving him when he returns to London.

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I see by a Pennsylvania gazette of October 21, that you are continued speaker, and myself agent; but I have no line from you or the committee relative to instructions. Perhaps I shall hear from you by Falconer. I find myself upon very good terms with our new minister lord Dartmouth, who, we have reason to think, means well to the colonies. I be lieve all are now sensible that nothing is to be got by contesting with, or oppressing us. Two circumstances have diverted me lately. One was, that being at the courts of exchequer on some business of my own, I there met with one of the commissioners of the stamp office, who told me he attended with a memorial from that board, to be allowed in their accounts the difference between their expense in endeavoring to establish those offices in America, and the amount of what they received, which from Canada and the West India islands was but about 1,500l., while the expense, if I remember right, was above 12,000l., being for stamps and stamping, with paper and parchment returned upon their hands, freight, &c. The other is the present difficulties of the India company, and of government on their account. The company have accepted bills, which they find themselves unable to pay, though they have the value of two millions, in tea and other India goods, in their stores, perishing under a want of demand. Their credit thus suffering, and their stock falling 120 per cent., whereby the government will lose the 400,000l. per annum, it having been stipulated that it should no longer be paid if the dividend fell to that mark. And although it is known that the American market is lost by continuing the duty on tea, and that we are supplied by the

Dutch, who doubtless take the opportunity of smuggling other India goods among us with the tea, so that for the five years past we might probably have otherwise taken off the greatest part of what the company have on hand, and so have prevented their present embarrassment, yet the honor of government is supposed to forbid the repeal of the American tea-duty; while the amount of all the duties goes on de creasing, so that the balance of this year does not (as I have it from good authority) exceed 80l. after paying the collec tion; not reckoning the immense expense of guarda costas, &c. Can an American help smiling at these blunders? though in a national light they are truly deplorable.

With other sincerest esteem, and inviolable attachment, I am, my dear friend, ever most affectionately yours.

B. FRANKLIN.

TO THOMAS CUSHING, ESQ.

Petition from Massachusetts Bay-Reasons for delaying the

SIR,

presenting it.

1.

London, Dec. 2, 1772..

The above is a copy of my last. A few days after my leaving your petition with Lord Dartmouth, his lordship sent for me to discourse with me upon it. After a long audience he was pleased to say, that notwithstanding all I had said, or could say, in support and justification of the petition, he was sure the presenting it at this time could not possibly produce any good: that the king would be exceedingly offended, but what steps his majesty would take upon it was uncertain; perhaps he would require the opinion of the judges or government lawyers, which would surely be against us; perhaps he might lay it before parliament, and so the censure of both houses would be drawn down upon us: the most favorable thing to be expected was, a severe reprimand to the assembly by order of his majesty,

the natural consequence of which must be more discontent and uneasiness in the province. That possessed as he was with great good-will for New England, he was extremely unwilling that one of the first acts of his administration, with ́regard to Massachusetts, should be of so unpleasant a nature. That minds had been heated and irritated on both sides the water, but he hoped those heats were now cooling, and he was averse to the addition of fresh fuel; that, as I had delivered the petition to him officially, he must present it if I insisted upon it; but he wished I would first consult my constituents, who might possibly, on reconsideration, think fit to order its being deferred. I answered that the great majority with which the petition, and the resolves on which it was founded, were carried through the house, made it scarce expectable that their order would be countermanded; that the slighting, evading, or refusing to receive petitions from the colonies on some late occasions by the parliament, had occasioned a total loss of the respect for, and confidence in, that body formerly subsisting so strongly in America, and brought on a questioning of their authority: that his lordship might observe that petitions came no more from that country to parliament, but to the king only: that the king appeared to be now the only connexion between the two countries; and that as a continued union was essentially necessary to the well-being of the whole empire, I should be sorry to see that link weakened as the other had been; that I thought it a dangerous thing for any government to refuse receiving petitions, and thereby prevent the subjects from giving vent to their griefs. His lordship interrupted me by replying that he did not refuse to deliver the petition; that it should never justly be said of him, that he interrupted the complaints of his majesty's subjects, and that he must and would present it, as he had said before, whenever I should absolutely require it; but from motives of pure good-will to

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the province, he wished me not to insist on it, till I should receive fresh orders. Finally, considering that since the petition was ordered there had been a change in the American administration; that the present minister was our friend in the repeal of the stamp act, and seems still to have good dispositions towards us; that you had mentioned to me the probability that the house would have remonstrated on all their other grievances, had not their time been taken up with the difficult business of a general valuation; and since the complaint of this petition was likely alone to give offence, it might perhaps be judged advisable to give the substance of all our complaints at once, rather than in parts, and after a reprimand received; I say, upon the whole I thought it best not to disoblige him in the beginning of his administration, by refusing him what he seemed so desirous of, a delay at least in presenting the petition, till farther directions should be received from my constituents. If after deliberation they should send me fresh orders, I shall immediately obey them, and the application to the crown itself may possibly derivé greater weight, from the re-consideration given it, while the temper of the house may be somewhat calmed by the removal of a minister who had rendered himself so obnoxious to them. Accordingly I consented to the delay desired, wherein I hope my conduct will not be disapproved,

With the greatest esteem and respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your and the committee's most obedient and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.

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TO THE HON. THOMAS CUSHING, ESQ.

Lord Dartmouth-American affairs-Great fall in India

SIR,

stock.

(Private)

London, Jan. 5, 1773.

1

I did myself the honor of writing to you on the 2d of December past, enclosing some original letters from persons in Boston, which 'I hope got safe to hand. I have since received your favor of October 27, which containing in a small compass so full an enumeration of our grievances, the steps necessary to remove them, and the happy effects that must follow, I thought that, though marked private, it might be of use to communicate it to Lord Dartmouth; the rather too, as he would there find himself occasionally mentioned with proper respect, and learn that his character was esteemed in the colonies. Accordingly I wrote him a few lines, and enclosed it a day or two before I was to wait on his lordship, that he might have a little time to consider the contents. When I next attended him, he returned me the letter with great complacence in his countenance; said he was glad to find that people in America were disposed to think so favorably of him; that they did him but justice in believing he had the best disposition towards them, for he wished sincerely their welfare, though possibly he might not always think with them as to the means of obtaining that end. That the heads of complaint in your letter were many, some of them requiring much consideration, and therefore it could scarce be expected that a sudden change should be made in so many measures, supposing them all improper to

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I Governor Hutchinson's Letters. See MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, Part iii. p. 186. 4to. ed.

17

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