ÆT. 70.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH HOWE. 367 you, vivâ voce, the matters mentioned in it; as I am, with Mr. Adams and Mr. Rutledge, appointed to wait on your conceiving it could be understood to refer to peace on any other conditions but those of mutual interest to both countries, which could alone render it permanent. But, as I perceive, from the tenor of your letter, how little I am to reckon upon the advantage of your assistance, for restoring that permanent union which has long been the object of my endeavours, and which, I flattered myself when I left England, would be in the compass of my power; I will only add, that, as the dishonor, to which you deem me exposed by my military situation in this country, has effected no change in your sentiments of personal regard towards me, so shall no difference in political points alter my desire of proving how much I am your sincere and obedient humble servant, HOWE. As Lord Howe omitted to recognize Congress or General Washington in their official characters, Congress neglected to take any steps towards meeting the advances of the British commissioners, whereupon the latter commenced military operations; the battle of Long Island was fought, and General Sullivan fell a prisoner into the hands of the enemy. He was sent by Lord Howe to Philadelphia to ask Congress to name some of its members to treat with the British commissioners for a return to their allegiance. Congress, on the 6th of September, ordered a committee of three, consisting of Dr. Franklin, Mr. John Adams, and Mr. Rutledge, to wait upon Lord Howe to ascertain whether his lordship had "any authority to treat with persons authorized by Congress for that purpose, and what that authority is, and to hear such propositions as he shall think fit to make respecting the same." William Howe's acceptance of the command in America was deeply resented by his constituents at Nottingham, who thought that he had broken faith with them in consenting to serve against the colonists. You should have refused to go against them," said many of them, "and if you go, we hope you may fall." A brother of the admiral and of the general, they were reminded, died there in the cause of freedom; they have shown their gratitude to your name and family by erecting a monument to him." Sir William wrote in reply that his going there was not his own seeking. "I was ordered, and could not refuse." In common with many of the opposition at the time, he thought that the rebellion would be soon put down; the rebels were so few in comparison with the loyal subjects. "When they find," he said in his apology to his constituents, "that they are not supported in their frantic ideas by the more moderate, they will from fear of punishment subside to the laws."-ED. Lordship, in consequence of a desire you expressed in some conversation with General Sullivan, and of a resolution of Congress made thereupon, which that gentleman has probably before this time communicated to you. We propose to set out on our journey to-morrow morning, and to be at Amboy on Wednesday about nine o'clock, where we should be glad to meet a line from your Lordship, appointing the time and place of meeting. If it would be agreeable to your Lordship, we apprehend, that, either at the house on Staten Island opposite to Amboy, or at the governor's house in Amboy, we might be accommodated with a room for the purpose. With the greatest esteem and respect, I have the honor to be, my Lord, &c.* *The day after this letter was written, Franklin and his colleagues set out from Philadelphia for Staten Island to visit Lord Howe. Mr. Adams has left an amusing account of their first night's repose at New Brunswick: "The taverns were so full we could with difficulty obtain entertainment. At Brunswick, but one bed could be procured for Dr. Franklin and me, in a chamber little larger than the bed, without a chimney and with only one small window. The window was open, and I, who was an invalid and afraid of the air in the night, shut it close. 'Oh,' says Franklin, 'don't shut the window, we shall be suffocated.' I answered I was afraid of the evening air. Dr. Franklin replied, 'The air within this chamber will soon be, and indeed is now, worse than without doors. Come, open the window and come to bed, and I will convince you. I believe you are not acquainted with my theory of colds.' Opening the window, and leaping into bed, I said I had read his letters to Dr. Cooper, in which he had advanced that nobody had ever got cold by going into a cold church or any other cold air, but the theory was so little consistent with my experience that I thought it a paradox. However, I had so much curiosity to hear his reasons that I would run the risk of a cold. The Doctor then began a harangue upon air and cold, and resp ration and perspiration, with which I was so much amused that I soon fell asleep, and left him and his philosophy together, but I believe they were equally sound and insensible within a few minutes after me, for the last words I heard were pronounced as if he was more than half asleep. I remember little of the lecture, except that the human body by respiration and perspiration destroys a gallon of air a minute; that two such persons ÆT. 70.] NEW NEGOTIATIONS. 369 as were now in that chamber would consume all the air in it in an hour or two; that by breathing over again the matter thrown off by the lungs and the skin, we should imbibe the real cause of colds, not from abroad, but from within, &c." To Franklin's letter of the 8th he received the following reply: LORD HOWE TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Eagle, off Bedlow's Island, September 10th, 1776. Lord Howe presents his compliments to Dr. Franklin, and according to the tenor of his favor of the 8th, will attend to have the pleasure of meeting him and Messrs. Adams and Rutledge to-morrow morning, at the house on Staten Island opposite to Amboy, as early as the few conveniences for travelling by land on Staten Island will admit. Lord Howe, upon his arrival at the place appointed, will send a boat (if he can procure in time), with a flag of truce, over to Amboy; and requests the Doctor and the other gentlemen will postpone their intended favor of passing over to meet him, until they are informed as above of his arrival to attend them there. In case the weather should prove unfavorable for Lord Howe to pass in his boat to Staten Island to-morrow, as from the present appearance there is some reason to suspect, he will take the next earliest opportunity that offers for that purpose. In this intention he may be further retarded, having been an invalid lately; but will certainly give the most timely notice of that inability. He, however, flatters himself he shall not have occasion to make further excuses on that account.* The conference failed of its purpose. Lord Howe's proposition consisted principally of assurances "that there was an exceeding good disposition in the King and his ministers to make that government easy to us, with intimations, that, in case of our submission, they would cause the offensive acts of Parliament to be revised, and the instructions to governors to be reconsidered; that so, if any just causes of complaint were found in the acts, or any errors in government were perceived to have crept into the instructions, they might be amended or withdrawn." The commissioners gave at length their reasons for thinking that a return of the colonies to the domination of Great Britain was no longer to be expected. Thereupon Lord Howe put an end to the conference. The committee, in their report to Congress, said: * William Temple Franklin says that the committee being arrived at Amboy, the admiral sent over his barge to receive and bring them to him, and to leave one of his principal officers as a hostage for their safe return. The committee of Congress had not desired a hostage, and took the officer back with them. The admiral met them at their landing, and conducted them through his guards to a convenient room for conference.-ED. "Upon the whole, it did not appear to your committee, that his Lordship's commission contained any other authority of importance than what is expressed in the act of Parliament, namely, that of granting pardons, with such exceptions as the commissioners shall think proper to make, and of declaring America, or any part of it, to be in the King's peace, upon submission." Speaking of this conference with Lord Howe, Mr. Adams, in his autobiography ("The Life and Works of John Adams,” vol. iii. p. 79), says: "Lord Howe was profuse in his expressions of gratitude to the State of Massachusetts for erecting a marble monument, in Westminster Abbey, to his elder brother, Lord Howe, who was killed in America in the last French war, saying, 'he esteemed that honor to his family above all things in this world. That such was his gratitude and affection to the country on that account that he felt for America as for a brother, and if America should fall, he should feel and lament it like the loss of a brother.' Dr. Franklin, with an easy air and a collected countenance, a bow, a smile, and all that naïveté which sometimes appeared in his conversation, and is often observed in his writings, replied: My Lord, we will do our utmost endeavours to spare your Lordship that mortification.' His Lordship appeared to feel this with more sensibility than I could expect; but he only returned, 'I suppose you will endeavour to give us employment in Europe.'"-ED. CHAPTER XIII. Franklin's Mission to France-Complaints of Lord Stormont-Arrival in To John Hancock, President of Con gress, dated Nantes, 8 De cember, 1776. 1776-1778. IN thirty days after we left the Capes of ing a change of wind proper to carry the ship into the river Loire; but the wind seemed fixed in an opposite quarter. I landed at Aury, and with The situation of the colonists had become so desperate, and the attitude of the English Parliament so menacing, that the Congress determined early in the spring of 1776 to send out a special agent to France, authorized to treat with the French ministry for aid in their unequal contest. Silas Deane, a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale College, part lawyer and part merchant, and at this time a member of the Congress, was selected for this mission. He received his instructions, and of the most minute character, from Dr. Franklin, at whose instigation, probably, the mission was determined upon. The communication between the Old World and the New was in those days infrequent and hazardous. The campaign of that year had been disastrous. The battle of Long Island had been followed by the loss of New York and the retreat of the colonial army into Westchester County. Everything looked gloomy and unpromising for the "infant Hercules." At last, in |