as you may suppose for Modesty's sake. The three Houses which I began to build last year, are nearly finished, and I am now about to begin two others. Building is an old Man's Amusement. The Advantage is for his Posterity. Since my coming home, the Market is extended before my Ground next the Street, and the high Rents such a Situation must afford, has been one of my Inducements.

As often as my Drafts may be presented to you, exceeding my Cash in your hands, I hereby desire you will furnish yourself by immediately disposing of some of my Stock in the public Funds.

For the best Room, in the Addition I have made to my Dwelling-House, I want a Mirror measuring 59% French Inches long, and 43 Inches wide, and I request you will send me such a one. As the Pacquet Boat is henceforth to sail from Havre, it will be easier to have things from Paris than formerly. No Frame is to be with it, as it is to be fix'd over the Chimney.

Please to re

I continue, Thanks to God, in good Health. member me kindly to all my old Acquaintance who do me the honour to enquire after me. My Grandsons and the rest of my Family join me in best Wishes of Health and Happiness to you and yours, and I am ever, with great and sincere Esteem, my dear Friend, yours most affectionately,

B. FRANKLIN.

P. S. I have desired Madame Helvétius to execute a little Commission for my Daughter. If she does it, I request you would pay the Bills.

1682. TO ABBÉ MORELLET1

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,

Philadelphia, April 22, 1787.

I received, though long after they were written, your very agreeable favours of October 30th, 1785, and February 9th, 1786,2 with the pieces enclosed, productions of the Auteuil Academy of Belles Lettres. Your kind and friendly wishes and congratulations are extremely obliging. It gives mẹ an infinite pleasure to find, that I still retain a favourable place in the remembrance of the worthy and the good, whose delightful and instructive society I had the happiness of enjoying while I resided in France.

But, though I could not leave that dear nation without regret, I certainly did right in coming home. I am here in my niche in my own house, in the bosom of my family, my daughter and grandchildren all about me, among my old friends, or the sons of my friends, who equally respect me; and who all speak and understand the same language with me; and you know, that, if a man desires to be useful by the exercise of his mental faculties, he loses half their force when in a foreign country, where he can only express himself in a language with which he is not well acquainted. In short, I enjoy here every opportunity of doing good, and every thing else I could wish for, except repose; and that I may soon 1 From "The Private Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin" (1818), Vol. I, p. 223. — ED.

2 See" Memoires de l'Abbé Morellet," Tom. I, p. 298.

ED.

8 The residence of Madame Helvétius, with whom the Abbé Morellet, Cabanis, La Roche, and other literary friends passed much of their time. W. T. F.

VOL. IX-2 P

expect, either by the cessation of my office, which cannot last more than three years, or by ceasing to live.

I am of the same opinion with you, respecting the freedom of commerce, especially in countries where direct taxes are practicable. This will be our case in time, when our wide-extended country fills up with inhabitants. But at present they are so widely settled, often five or six miles distant from one another in the back country, that the collection of a direct tax is almost impossible the trouble of the collectors' going from house to house amounting to more than the value of the tax. Nothing can be better expressed than your sentiments are on this point, where you prefer liberty of trading, cultivating, manufacturing, &c., even to civil liberty, this being affected but rarely, the other every hour. Our debt occasioned by the war being heavy, we are under the necessity of using imposts, and every method we can think of, to assist in raising a revenue to discharge it; but in sentiment we are well disposed to abolish duties on importation, as soon as we possibly can afford to do so.

Whatever may be reported by the English in Europe, you may be assured, that our people are almost unanimous in being satisfied with the Revolution. Their unbounded respect for all who were principally concerned in it, whether as warriors or statesmen, and the enthusiastic joy with which the day of the declaration of independence is everywhere annually celebrated, are indubitable proofs of this truth. In one or two of the States there have been some discontents on partial and local subjects; these may have been fomented, as the accounts of them are exaggerated, by our ancient enemies; but they are now nearly suppressed, and the rest of the States enjoy peace and good order, and flourish amaz

ingly. The crops have been good for several years past, the price of country produce high, from foreign demand, and it fetches ready money; rents are high in our towns, which increase fast by new buildings; labourers and artisans have high wages well paid, and vast tracts of new land are continually clearing and rendered fit for cultivation.

The pains you have taken to translate the congratulatory addresses, which I received on my arrival, is a fresh proof of the continuance of your friendship for me, which has afforded me as much satisfaction as the addresses themselves, and you will readily believe, that for me this is not saying little; for this welcome of my fellow citizens has far surpassed my hopes. Popular favour, not the most constant thing in the world, stands by me. My election to the presidency for the second year was unanimous. Will this disposition continue the same for the third? Nothing is more doubtful. A man, who holds a high office, finds himself so often exposed to the danger of disobliging some one in the fulfilment of his duty, that the resentment of those, whom he has thus offended, being greater than the gratitude of those whom he has served, it almost always happens, that, while he is violently attacked, he is feebly defended. You will not be surprised, then, if you learn, that I have not closed my political career with the same éclat, with which it commenced.

I am sorry for what you tell me of the indisposition you have experienced. I sometimes wonder, that Providence does not protect the good from all evil and from every suffering. This should be so in the best of worlds; and, since it is not so, I am piously led to believe, that, if our world is not indeed the best, we must lay the blame on the bad quality

of the materials of which it is made. I am, my dear friend, with sincere esteem, and affection, ever yours,

B. FRANKLIN.

SIR,

1683. TO FRANCIS CHILDS

(A. P. S.)

Philad. May 8. 1787.

Your Papers do not come here regularly. I have not received any of them for some Weeks past. I am glad however to hear from you that it is well established, and likely to be profitable.

You are always complaining of Imperfections in the Founts, which I suppose to proceed from your not having right Ideas of that Matter. They were all cast after the best Rules of the Founderies in England, and in the same Proportions. But as the Stiles of Authors vary, and different Subjects use the different Sorts variously, there never could be a Fount so proportioned as to run out equally in all cases. And if whenever, in any Work, four or five Sorts run short, you cast for the Deficiency, in a subsequent Work those Sorts may be superabundant, and all the rest will appear deficient, so that there will be no End of proceeding in that Manner. Therefore it is, that Printers have usually to every large Fount what they call a Bomcase, or Fount Case, that is, a Case with larger Divisions, and deeper than the common Cases, to hold those Sorts that are superfluous in one kind of Work, and where they may be found when wanting in another. You remark that your now demanding more of sundry Sorts (after being supply'd with all you formerly thought wanting) is owing partly to your not taking an accurate List of the Imperfec