184

PRUSSIAN EDICT.

[ÆT. 67.

whatsoever, dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be loaded or put into or upon any vessel, cart, carriage, or horse, to be transported or conveyed out of one county in the said island into another county, or to any other place whatsoever, by any person or persons whatsoever; on pain of forfeiting the same, with a penalty of five hundred pounds sterling for every offence. Nor shall any hat-maker, in any of the said counties, employ more than two apprentices, on penalty of five pounds sterling per month; we intending hereby, that such hat-makers, being so restrained, both in the production and sale of their commodity, may find no advantage in continuing their business. But, lest the said islanders should suffer inconveniency by the want of hats, we are farther graciously pleased to permit them to send their beaver furs to Prussia; and we also permit hats made thereof to be exported from Prussia to Britain ; the people thus favored to pay all costs and charges of manufacturing, interest, commission to our merchants, insurance and freight going and returning, as in the case of iron.

“And, lastly, being willing farther to favor our said colonies in Britain, we do hereby also ordain and command, that all the thieves, highway and street robbers, housebreakers, forgerers, murderers, s-d-tes, and villains of every denomination, who have forfeited their lives to the law in Prussia; but whom we, in our great clemency, do not think fit here to hang; shall be emptied out of our gaols into the said Island of Great Britain, for the better peopling of that country.

“We flatter ourselves, that these our royal regulations and commands will be thought just and reasonable by our much-favored colonists in England; the said regulations being copied from their Statutes of roth and 11th William

III. c. 10, 5th George II. c. 22, 23d George II. c. 29, 4th George I. c. 11, and from other equitable laws made by their Parliaments; or from instructions given by their princes; or from resolutions of both Houses, entered into for the good government of their own colonies in Ireland and America.

“And all persons in the said Island are hereby cautioned not to oppose in any wise the execution of this our Edict, or any part thereof, such opposition being high treason; of which all who are suspected shall be transported in fetters from Britain to Prussia, there to be tried and executed according to the Prussian law.

"Such is our pleasure. “Given at Potsdam, this twenty-fifth day of the month of

August, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, and in the thirty-third year of our reign. "By the King, in his Council.

“RECHTMAESSIG,

Sec."

Some take this Edict to be merely one of the King's jeux d'esprit; others suppose it serious, and that he means a quarrel with England; but all here think the assertion it concludes with, “that these regulations are copied from acts of the English Parliament respecting their colonies," a very injurious one; it being impossible to believe, that a people distinguished for their love of liberty, a nation so wise, so liberal in its sentiments, so just and equitable towards its neighbours, should, from mean and injudicious views of petty immediate profit, treat its own children in a manner so arbitrary and tyrannical !

CHAPTER VII.

Petition of the Massachusetts Assembly for Hutchinson's Recall—Hearing in

the Cockpit-Wedderburn's Insolence—The Petition rejected-Franklin dismissed from the Postoffice-Death of Mrs. Franklin-Relations of Franklin with Earl Chatham and Lord Howe-Earl Chatham's Motion for the Conciliation of America rejected— Franklin's Return to America.

1773-1774.

Thomas

To

I WAITED on Lord Dartmouth, on his return Cushing, dated London, 5

to town, and learned that he had presented to January, 1774. his Majesty our petition for the removal of the governors. No subsequent step had yet been taken upon it; but his Lordship said, the King would probably refer the consideration of it to a committee of Council, and that I should have notice to be heard in support of it. By the turn of his conversation, though he was not explicit, I apprehend the petition is not likely to be complied with; but we shall see. His Lordship expressed, as usual, much concern at the differences subsisting, and wished they would be accommodated. Perhaps his good wishes are all that is in

his power.

The famous letters having unfortunately engaged Mr. Temple and Mr. Whately in a duel, which being interrupted, would probably be renewed, I thought it incumbent on me to prevent, as far as I could, any farther mischief, by

a

declaring publicly the part I had in the affair of those letters, and thereby at the same time to rescue Mr. Temple's character from an undeserved and groundless imputation, that bore hard upon his honor, viz. that of taking the letters from Mr. Whately, and in breach of confidence. I did this with the more pleasure, as I believe him a sincere friend to our country. I am told by some, that it was imprudent in me to avow the obtaining and sending those letters, for that administration will resent it. I have not much apprehension of this; but, if it happens, I must take the consequences. I only hope it will not affect any friend on your side of the water, for I have never mentioned to whom they were transmitted.

A letter of mine to you, printed in one of the Boston papers, has lately been reprinted here, to show, as the publisher expresses it, that I am “one of the most determined enemies of the welfare and prosperity of Great Britain.” In the opinion of some, every one who wishes the good of the whole empire may nevertheless be an enemy to the welfare of Great Britain, if he does not wish its good exclusively of every other part, and to see its welfare built on their servitude and wretchedness. Such an enemy I certainly am. But methinks it is wrong to print letters of mine at Boston, which give occasion to these reflections.

I shall continue to do all I possibly can this winter towards an accommodation of our differences; but my hopes are small. Divine Providence first infatuates the power it designs to ruin.

To William No insinuations of the kind you mention, Franklin, dated London, 5

concerning Mr. Galloway, have reached me, January, 1774. and, if they had, it would have been without 188

PROPOSES TO LEAVE ENGLAND.

[ÆT. 67.

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 which 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 I

, 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 further mischief, and so declared my having transmitted the letters in question. This has drawn some censure upon myself; but, as I grow old, I row

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