the congress to their satisfaction, I hope they will not refuse me. It is this; that they will be pleased to take under their protection my grandson, William Temple Franklin. I have educated him from his infancy, and I brought him over with an intention of placing him where he might be qualified for the profession of the law, but the constant occasion I had for his services as a private secretary, during the time of the commissioners, and more extensively since their departure, has induced me to keep him always with me; and indeed being continually disappointed of the secretary congress had at different times intended me, it would have been impossible for me, without this young gentleman's assistance, to have gone through the business incumbent on me: he has thereby lost so much of the time necessary to law studies, that I think it rather advisable for him to continue, if it may be, in the line of public foreign affairs for which he seems qualified by a sagacity and judgment above his years. Great diligence and exact probity, a genteel address, a facility in speaking well the French tongue, and all the knowledge of business to be obtained by a four years' constant employment in the secretary's office, where he may be said to have served a kind of apprenticeship. After all the allowance I am capable of making for the partiality of a parent to his offspring, L cannot but think he may in time make a very able foreign minister for the congress, in whose service his fidelity may be relied on; but I do not at present propose him as such, as a few years more of experience will not be amiss. In the mean time, if they shall think fit to employ him as a secretary to their minister at any European court, I am persuaded they will have reason to be satisfied with his conduct, and I shall be thankful for his appointment as a favor to me." The greatest discovery made in Europe for some time past is that of Dr. Ingenhausz's relating to the great use of the leaves of trees in producing wholesome air; I would send you his book if I had it. A new instrument is lately invented here, a kind of telescope, which by means of Iceland crystal occasions the double appearance of an object, and the two appearances being farther distant from each other in proportion to the distance of the object from the eye, by moving an index on a graduated line till the two appearances coincide, you find on the line the real distance of the object. I am not enough master of this instrument to describe it accurately, having seen it but once; but it is very ingeniously contrived. 1. Remember me respectfully to your mother and sisters, and believe me ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, DEAR SIR, B. FRANKLIN. TO DR. BOND, Philadelphia. Letter of Friendship. Passy, March 16, 1780. I received your kind letter of September the 22d, and I thank you for the pleasing account you give me of the health and welfare of my old friends, Hugh Roberts, Luke Morris, Philip Syng, Samuel Rhoades, &c. with the same of yourself and family. Shake the old ones by the hand for me, and give the young ones my blessing. For my own part, I do not find that I grow any older. Being arrived at 70, and considering that by travelling further in the same road I should probably be led to the grave, I stopped short, turned about, and walked back again; which having done these four By the Abbé Rochon, of the French Academy of Sciences. years, you may now call me 66. Advise those old friends of ours to follow my example; keep up your spirits and that will keep up your bodies; you will no more stoop under the weight of age than if you had swallowed a handspike. But it is right to abate a little in the article of labor; and therefore as your demonstrations of midwifery" are useful, and it is a pity you should give them up, for want of subjects in the lying-in wards," I advise you to get some of your young pupils to help you. I am glad the Philosophical Society made that compliment to Mr. Gerard. I wish they would do the same to Mr. Feutry, a worthy gentleman here; and to Dr. Ingenhausz, who has made some great discoveries lately respecting the leaves of trees in improving air for the use of animals: he will send you his book. He is physician to the empress queen. I have not yet seen your piece on inoculation. Remember me respectfully and affectionately to Mrs. Bond, your children, and all friends. I am ever, yours, B. FRANKLIN. P.S. I have bought some valuable books which I intend to present to the society; but shall not send them till safer times. TO DR. COOPER, Boston. Relative to his grandson.—The alliance with France, &c. I received your kind favor by Captain Chavagnes, which I communicated to the minister of marine, who was much pleased with the character you give of the captain. I have also yours of Nov. 12, by your grandson, who appears a very promising lad, in whom I think you will have much satisfaction. He is in a boarding-school just by me, and was well last Sunday, when I had the pleasure of his company to dinner with Mr. Adam's sons and some other young Americans. He will soon acquire the language; and if God spares his life, may make a very serviceable man to his country. It gives me infinite satisfaction to find that with you the wisest and best among our people, are so hearty in endeavoring to strengthen the alliance. We certainly owe much to this nation; and we shall obtain much more, if the same prudent conduct towards them continues, for they really and strongly wish our prosperity, and will promote it by every means in their power. But we should at the same time do as much as possible for ourselves, and not ride (as we say) a free horse to death. There are some Americans returning hence, with whom our people should be upon their guard; as carrying with them a spirit of enmity to this country. Not being liked here themselves, they dislike the people; for the same reason, indeed, they ought to dislike all that know them. With the sincerest respect and esteem, I am ever, my dear friend, Yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. To C. GRIFFIN, Esq. SIR, 1 Passy, March 16, 1780. I have just received the letter you have done me the honor to write to me, and shall immediately deliver the packet it recommends to my care. I will take the first opportunity of mentioning to Mr. Gerard what you hint, relative to our not entertaining strangers so frequently and liberally, as is the custom in France. But he has travelled in Europe, and knows that modes of nations differ. The French are convivial, live much at one another's tables, and are glad to feast travellers. In Italy and Spain a stranger, however re as it sometimes does a drunken dicer. But by their tyranny in the east they have at length roused the powers there against them; and I do not know that they have in the west a single friend. If they lose their India commerce, which is one of their present great supports, and one battle at sea, their credit is gone and the power follows. Thus empires by pride, and folly, and extravagance, ruin themselves like individuals. M. La Motte Piquet has snatched from between their teeth, a good deal of their West India prey, having taken 22 sail of their homeward bound prizes; one of our American priva teers has taken two more, and brought them into Brest; and two were burnt. There were 34 in company, with two men of war of the line and two frigates, who saved themselves by flight, but we do not hear of their being yet got in.. B. FRANKLIN,. • TO MR. HODGSON, LONDON. Abominable conduct of a Mr. Digges-Peace-Proposals of mediation. DEAR SIR, Passy, April 1, 1781. I received your respected favor of the 20th past, and am shocked exceedingly at the account you give me of Digges. He that robs the rich even of a single guinea is a villain, but what is he who can break his sacred trust, by robbing a poor man and a prisoner of eighteen-pence given charitably for his relief, and repeat that crime as often as there are weeks in a winter, and multiply it by robbing as many poor men every week as make up the number of near 600? We have no name in our language for such atrocious |