see, miss this good and safe opportunity of sending you a few lines, with my best wishes for your happiness, and that of the whole dear and amiable family in whose sweet society I have spent so many happy hours. Mr. Jones tells me he shall have a pleasure in being the bearer of my letter, of which 1 make no doubt: I learn from him, that to your drawing, and music, and painting, and poetry, and Latin, you have added a proficiency in chess; so that you are, as the French say, remplie de talents. May they and you fall to the lot of one that shall duly value them, and love you as much as I do! B. FRANKLIN.

Adieu.

TO DOCTOR PRICE.

On the British parliament-Religious tests, &c.

DEAR SIR,

Passy, October 9, 1780.

છે.

Besides the pleasure of their company, I had the great satisfaction of hearing by your two valuable friends, and learning from your letter, that you enjoy a good state of health. May God continue it, as well for the good of mankind as for your comfort! I thank you much for the second edition of your excellent pamphlet: I forwarded that you sent to Mr. Dana, he being in Holland. I wish also to see the piece you have written, (as Mr. Jones tells me) on toleration: I do not expect that your new parliament will be either wiser or honester than the last. All projects to procure an honest one, by place bills, &c. appear to me vain and impracticable. The true cure, I imagine, is to be found only in rendering all places unprofitable, and the king too poor to give bribes and pensions. Till this is done, which can only be by a revolution,

1 Afterwards sir William Jones, who married the bishop of St. Asaph's eldest daughter, Anna Maria Shipley.

(and I think you have not virtue enough left to procure one,) your nation will always be plundered, and obliged to pay by taxes the plunderers for plundering and ruining. Liberty and virtue therefore join in the call, COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE!

I am fully of your opinion respecting religious tests; but though the people of Massachusetts have not in their new constitution kept quite clear of them; yet if we consider what that people were one hundred years ago, we must allow they have gone greater lengths in liberality of sentiment, on religious subjects: and we may hope for greater degrees of perfection when their constitution some years hence shall be revised. If Christian preachers had continued to teach as Christ and his apostles did, without salaries, and as the Quakers now do, I imagine tests would never have existed; for I think they were invented not so much to secure religion itself, as the emoluments of it. When a religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. But I shall be out of my depth if I wade any deeper in theology, and I will not trouble you with politics, nor with news which are almost as uncertain; but conclude with a heart-felt wish to embrace you once more, and enjoy your sweet society in peace, among our honest, worthy, ingenious friends at the London.

Adieu, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

strange and awkward to some readers; and I shall therefore in my edition, take the liberty of marking the quoted texts in the margin.

"I know not whether a belly-full has been given to any body by the picking of my bones, but picked they now are, and I think it time they should be at rest. I am taking measures to obtain that rest for them; happy if before I die, I can find a few days absolutely at my own disposal! I often form pleasing imaginations of the pleasure I should enjoy as a private person among my friends and compatriots in my native Boston. God only knows whether this pleasure is reserved for me. With the greatest and most sincere esteem, I am, &c. B. FRANKLIN.

TO MESSRS. D. WENDORP AND THOMAS HOPE

HEYHGER.

Injustice of the English-New law of nations.

GENTLEMEN,

Passy, June 8, 1781.

I received the letter you did me the honor of writing to me the 81st past, relating to your ship supposed to be retaken from the English by an American privateer and carried into Morlaix. I apprehend that you have been misinformed, as I do not know of any American privateer at present in these seas. I have the same sentiments with you of the injustice of the English, in their treatment of your nation. They seem at present to have renounced all pretension to any other honor than that of being the first piratical state in the world. There are three employments which I wish the law of nations would protect, so that they should never be molested or interrupted by enemies even in time of war; I mean farmers, fishermen, and merchants; because their employments are not only innocent, but for the common

show that I have not been inattentive to your request, and at the same time prove that the intelligence you receive of what passes in this country, is not always what is to be depended on for its accuracy and correctness.

I have the honor to be, &c.

GREY COOper.

[Enclosed in the foregoing.]

From the Lieutenant-Governor of the Tower of London to

DEAR SIR,

Sir Grey Cooper.

Hampstead, November 27, 1780. I am much ashamed to think I shall appear so dilatory in answering the favor of your letter; but the truth is, I was not in town when the messenger left it in Cork-street, and by the neglect of my servants, I received it only on Sunday last. I went immediately to the Tower to know from Mr. Laurens himself, if he had any cause of complaint, and if he had availed himself of the indulgence allowed him by the secretary of state, of walking within the Tower whenever it was agreeable to himself: his answer to me was full and frank to the questions, that he had received every reasonable indul-. gence, since his confinement; and that, by the liberty allowed him of walking, he found his health much mended: he said at the same time, he had always thought himself highly honored, by the distinguished place of his confinement, and regretted much it was not in his power, to make known to all the world the acknowledgments he had more than once made to me upon this subject.'

The tenor of the foregoing does not quadrate with the sentiments expressed by Mr. Laurens, about a year afterwards in his petition to the house of commons, written by himself in the Tower, with a blacklead pencil, on a blank leaf of an octavo book, and privately conveyed.

I beg you will do me the favor to communicate these par ticulars to lord George Germaine as soon as convenient.

I have the honor to be, dear sir, &c.

CH. VERNON.

To SIR EDWARD NEWENHAM, BART., DUBLIN.

Passport for provisions and clothing sent to the West

Indies.

SIR, Passy, Feb. 12, 1781. I have received the letter you did me the honor of writing to me the 12th ult. Enclosed with this, I send you the passport desired, which I hope will be respected and effectual. With great esteem, I have the honor to be,

sir, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

To all captains and commanders of vessels of war belonging to the thirteen United States of America, er either of them, or to any of the citizens of the said states, or to any of the allies thereof.

Gentlemen,

It being authentically represented to me, that the worthy citizens of Dublin, touched with the general calamities with which divine Providence has thought fit lately to visit the West India islands,

to Mr. Burke, who presented it in that state to the house. In this petition, dated Dec. 7, 1781, he expressly states: "That he was captured on the American coast, and committed to the Tower on the 6th of Oc tober, 1780, being then dangerously ill: that in the mean time he has in many respects, particularly by being deprived (with very little exception) of the visits and consolations of his children and other relations and friends, suffered under a degree of rigor, almost, if not altogether, unexampled in modern British history.

"That from long confinement, and the want of proper exercise, and other obvious causes, his bodily health is greatly impaired, and that he is now in a languishing state," &c. &c. (See Dodsley's Annual Register for 1781 and 1782.