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...With the greatest esteem and respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

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Insinuations respecting Mr. Galloway-Dr. Franklin's proposed return to America-Mr. Temple's duel.

DEAR SON,

London, Jan. 5, 1774.

I received yours of October 29 and November 2.

Your December packet is not yet arrived.

No insinuations of the kind you mention, concerning Mr. Gy have reached me, and if they had, it would have been without the least effect, as I have always had the strongest reliance on the steadiness of his friendship, and on the best grounds, the knowledge I have of his integrity, and the often repeated disinterested services he has rendered me. My return will interfere with nobody's interest or influence in public affairs, as my intention is to decline all interest in them, and every active part, except where it can serve a friend, and to content myself with communicating the knowledge of them my situation may have furnished me with, and be content with giving my advice for the public benefit, where it may be asked, or where I shall think it may be attended to: for being now about entering my sixty-ninth year, and having lived so great a part of my life to the public, it seems but fair that I should be allowed to live the small remainder to myself and to my friends.

If the honorable office you mention will be agreeable to him, I heartily wish it him. I only hope that, if offered to him, he will insist on its being not during pleasure, but quamdiu se bene gesserit..

Our friend Temple, as you will see by the papers, has been engaged in a duel about an affair in which he had no concern. As the combat was interrupted, and understood to be unfinished, I thought it incumbent on me to do what I could for preventing farther mischief, and so declared my having transmitted the letters in question. This has drawn some censure upon myself; but as I grow old, I grow less concerned about censure when I am satisfied that I act rightly, and I have the pleasure of having exculpated a friend who lay undeservedly under an imputation much to his dishonor.

I am now seriously preparing for my departure to America, I purpose sending my luggage, books, instruments, &c. by All, or Falconer, and take my passage to New York in one of the spring or summer packets, partly for settling some bu siness with the Post-office there, and partly that I may see you on my way to Philadelphia, and learn thereby more perfectly the state of affairs. Your affectionate father,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

On the rise and progress of the differences between Great

SIR,

Britain and her American colonies.

The enclosed paper was written just before Lord Hillsborough quitted the American department. An expectation then prevailing, from the good character of the noble lord who succeeded him, that the grievances of the colonies would, under his administration, be redressed, it was laid aside; but as not a single measure of his predecessor has since been even attempted to be changed, and on the contrary new ones have been continually added further to exasperate, render them desperate, and drive them, if possible, into open

rebellion, it may not be amiss now to give it the public, as it shows in detail the rise and progress of those differences which are about to break the empire in pieces. I am, sir, yours, &c. A. P...

SIR,

It is a bad temper of mind that takes a delight in opposition, and is ever ready to censure ministry in the gross, without discrimination. Charity should be willing to believe that we never had an administration so bad, but there might be some good and some wise men in it; and that even such is our case at present. The scripture saith, By their works shall ye know them. By their conduct, then, in their respective departments, and not by their company or their party connexions should they be distinctly and separately judged.

One of the most serious affairs to this nation, that has of late required the attention of government, is our misunderstanding with the colonies. They are in the department of Lord Hillsborough, and from a prevailing opinion of his abilities, have been left by the other ministers very much to his management. If then our American business has been conducted with prudence, to him chiefly will be due the reputation of it.

Soon after the late war, it became an object with the ministers of this country to draw a revenue from America. The first attempt was by a stamp act. It soon appeared that this step had not been well considered; that the rights, the ability, the opinions and temper of that great people had not been sufficiently attended to. They complained that the tax was unnecessary, because their assemblies had ever been ready to make voluntary grants to the crown in proportion to their abilities, when duly required so to do; and unjust, because they had no representative in the British Parliament,

but had parliaments of their own, wherein their consent was given as it ought to be, in grants of their own money. I do not mean to enter into this question. The parliament repealed the acts as inexpedient, but in another act asserted a right of taxing America; and in the following year laid duties on the manufactures of this country exported thither. On the repeal of the stamp act, the Americans had returned to their wonted good humor and commerce with Britain; but this new act for laying duties renewed their uneasiness. They were long since forbidden by the navigation act to purchase manufactures from Britain, or make the same themselves.

In this situation were affairs when my Lord. H. entered on the American administration. Much was expected from his supposed abilities, application, and knowledge of business in that department. The newspapers were filled with his panegyrics, and expectations raised perhaps inconveniently. 51

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The Americans determined to petition their sovereign, praying his gracious interposition in their favor with his parliament, that the imposition of these duties, which they considered as an infringement of their rights, might be repealed. The assembly of the Massachusetts Bay had voted that it should be proposed to the other colonies to concur in that measure, This, for what reason I do not easily conceive, gave great offence to his lordship; and one of his first steps was to prevent these concurring petitions. To this end, he sent a mandate to that assembly (the parliament of that country) requiring them to RESCIND that vote, and desist from the measure, threatening them with dissolution in case of disobedience. The governor communicated to them the instructions he received to that purpose. They refused to obey, and were dissolved! Similar orders were sent at the same time to the governors of the other colonies, to dissolve their respective parliaments if they presumed to accede to

the Boston proposition of petitioning his majesty, and several of them were accordingly dissolved.

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Bad ministers have ever been averse to the right subjects claim of petitioning and remonstrating to their sovereign: for through that channel the prince may be apprised of the mal-administration of his servants; they may sometimes be thereby brought into danger, at least such petitions afford a handle to their adversaries whereby to give them trouble. But as the measure to be complained of was not his lordship's, it is rather extraordinary that he should thus set his face against the intended complaints. In his angry letters to America, he called the proposal of these petitions measure of most dangerous and factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of his majesty's subjects in the colonies, to promote an unwarrantable combination, and to excite and encourage an open opposition to, and denial of the authority of the parliament, and, to subvert the true spirit of the constitution ;" and directed the governors immediately on the receipt of these orders, to exert their utmost influence to defeat this FLAGITIOUS attempt.

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Without entering into the particular motives to this piece of his lordship's conduct, let us consider a little the wisdom of it. When subjects conceive themselves oppressed or injured, laying their complaints before the sovereign or the governing powers, is a kind of vent to griefs that gives some ease to their minds; the receiving with at least an appearance of regard their petitions, and taking them into consideration, gives present hope, and affords time for the cooling of resentment; so that even the refusal, when decently expressed and accompanied with reasons, is made less unpleasant by the manner, is half approved, and the rest submitted to with patience. But when this vent to popular discontents is

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