facture, which the country was not yet fo ripe for as to encourage private perfons to fet it up; labour being generally too dear there, and hands difficult to be kept together, every one defiring to be a mafter, and the cheapnefs of land inclining many to leave trades for agriculture. Some indeed have met with fuccefs, and are carried on to advantage; but they are generally fuch as require only a few hands, or wherein great part of the work is performed by machines. Goods that are bulky, and of fo fmall value as not well to bear the expence of freight, may often be made cheaper in the country than they can be imported; and the manufacture of fuch goods will be profitable wherever there is a fufficient demand. The farmers in America produce indeed a good deal of wool and flax; and none is exported, it is all worked up; but it is in the way of domeftic manufacture, for the use of the family. The buying up quantities of wool and flax, with the defign to employ fpinners, weavers, &c. and form great establishments, producing quantities of linen and woollen goods for fale, has been feveral times attempted in different provinces; but thofe projects have generally failed, goods of equal value being imported cheaper. And when the governments have been folicited to fupport fuch fchemes by encouragements, in money, or by impofing duties on importation of fuch goods, it has been generally refufed, on this principle, that if the country is ripe for the manufacture, it may be carried on by private persons to advantage; and if not, it is a folly to think of forcing nature. Great eftablishments of manufacture, require great numbers of poor to do the work for fmall wages; thofe poor are to be found in Europe, but will not be found in America, till the lands are all taken up and cultivated, and the

excefs

excess of people who cannot get land want employment. The manufacture of filk, they fay, is natural in France, as that of cloth in England, because each country produces in plenty the first material: but if England will have a manufacture of filk as well as that of cloth, and France of cloth as well as that of filk, these unnatural operations must be supported by mutual prohibitions, or high duties on the importation of each other's goods; by which means the workmen are enabled to tax the home confumer by greater prices, while the higher wages they receive make them neither happier nor richer, fince they only drink more and work lefs. Therefore the governments in America do nothing to encourage fuch projects. The people, by this means, are not impofed on either by the merchant or mechanic: if the merchant demands too much profit on imported fhoes, they buy of the fhoemaker; and if he asks too high a price, they take them of the merchant: thus the two profeffions are checks on each other. The fhoemaker, however, has, on the whole, a confiderable profit upon his labour in America, beyond what he had in Europe, as he can add to his price a fum nearly equal to all the expences of freight and commiffion, rifque or infurance, &c. neceffarily charged by the merchant. And the cafe is the fame with the workmen in every other mechanic art. Hence it is, that artifans generally live better and more easily in America than in Europe; and fuch as are good œconomifts make a comfortable provifion for age, and for their children. Such may, therefore, remove with advantage to America.

In the old long-fettled countries of Europe, all arts, trades, profeffions, farms, &c. are fo full, that it is difficult for a poor man who has children to place them where they may gain, or learn to

gain, a decent livelihood. The artifans, who fear creating future rivals in business, refufe to take apprentices, but upon conditions of money, maintenance, or the like, which the parents are unable to comply with. Hence the youth are dragged up in ignorance of every gainful art, and obliged to become foldiers, or fervants, or thieves, for a fubfiftence. In America, the rapid increase of inhabitants takes away that fear of rivalfhip, and artifans willingly receive apprentices from the hope of profit by their labour, during the remainder of the time ftipulated, after they fhall be inftructed. Hence it is eafy for poor families to get their children inftructed; for the artifans are fo defirous of apprentices, that many of them will even give money to the parents, to have boys from ten to fifteen years of age bound apprentices to them, till the age of twenty-one; and many poor parents have, by that means, on their arrival in the country, raifed money enough to buy land fufficient to establish themselves, and to fubfift the rest of their family by agriculture. These contracts for apprentices are made before a magiftrate, who regulates the agreement according to reafon and juftice; and having in view the formation of a future ufeful citizen, obliges the mafter to engage by a written indenture, not only that, during the time of fervice ftipulated, the apprentice fhall be duly provided with meat, drink, apparel, washing, and lodging, and at its expiration with a complete new fuit of clothes, but alfo that he fhall be taught to read, write, and caft accounts; and that he fhall be well inftructed in the art or profeffion of his mafter, or fome other, by which he may afterwards gain a livelihood, and be able in his turn to raise a family. A copy of this indenture is given to the apprentice or his friends, and the magiftrate keeps a record

a record of it, to which recourse may be had, in cafe of failure by the master in any point of performance. This defire among the mafters to have more hands employed in working for them, induces them to pay the paffages of young perfons, of both fexes, who, on their arrival, agree to ferve them one, two, three, or four years; thofe who have already learned a trade, agreeing for a fhorter term, in proportion to their skill, and the confequent immediate value of their fervice; and those who have none, agreeing for a longer term, in confideration of being taught an art their poverty would not permit them to acquire in their own country.

The almoft general mediocrity of fortune that prevails in America, obliging its people to follow fome business for fubfiftence, thofe vices that arise ufually from idleness, are in a great measure prevented. Induftry and conftant employment are great prefervatives of the morals and virtue of a nation. Hence bad examples to youth are more rare in America, which must be a comfortable confideration to parents. To this may be truly added, that ferious religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but refpected and practifed. Atheism is unknown there; infidelity rare and fecret; fo that perfons may live to a great age in that country without having their piety fhocked by meeting with either an atheift or an infidel. And the Divine Being feems to have manifefted his approbation of the mutual forbearance and kindness with which the different fects treat each other, by the remarkable profperity with which he has been pleafed to favour the whole country.

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FINAL

FINAL SPEECH OF DR. FRANKLIN IN THE LATE FEDERAL CONVENTION*.

MR. PRESIDENT,

I CONFESS that I do not entirely approve of this conftitution at prefent: but, Sir, I am not sure I fhall never approve it; for having lived fo long, I have experienced many inftances of being obliged by better information, or fuller confideration, to change opinions even on important fubjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwife. It is, therefore, that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more refpect to the judgment of others. Moft men, indeed, as well as moft fects in religion, think themfelves in poffeffion of all truth, and that whenever others differ from them, it is fo far error. Steele, a proteftant, in a dedication, tells the pope, that "the only * difference between our two churches, in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines, is, "the Romish church is infallible, and the church of England never in the wrong." But, though many private perfons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their fect, few exprefs it fo naturally as a certain French lady, who, in a little difpute with her fifter, faid, I don't know how it happens, fifter, but I meet with nobody but myfelf that is always in the right. Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raifon. In thefe fentiments, Sir, I agree to this conftitution, with all

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* Our reafons for afcribing this fpeech to Dr. Franklin, are its internal evidence, and its having appeared with his name, during his life-time, uncontradicted, in an American periodical publication.

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