ent heights and situations among its mountains, afford such temperatures of air, that all the fruits of northern and southern countries are produced there; wheat, apples, grapes, peaches, oranges, lemons, plantains, bananas, and so forth. Here we furnished ourselves with fresh provisions of all kinds; and after a few days proceeded on our voyage, running southward until we got into the trade-winds, and then with them westward till we drew near the coast of America. The weather was so favorable, that there were few days in which we could not visit from ship to ship, dining with each other, and on board of the man-of-war; which made the time pass much more agreeably than when one goes in a single ship; for this was like travelling in a moving village, with all one's neighbors in company."

He reached home on the 1st of November, 1762, after an absence from Philadelphia of a little less than six years. He found his wife and daughter in good health; "the latter," says he " grown quite a woman, with many amiable accomplishments acquired in my absence; and my friends as hearty and affectionate as ever, with whom my house was filled for many days, to congratulate me on my return."

His son, who remained behind him in England to consummate, with his father's consent, and approbation," his marriage with "a very agreeable West India lady, with whom he was very happy," arrived at Philadelphia with his wife, in the following February; and after a few days delay at home, he went, accompanied by his father, to take possession of his office as governor of New Jersey. "He met," says Franklin, "with the kindest reception from people of all ranks, and has lived with them ever since, in the greatest harmony."

OF GOVERNOR PENN -FRANKLIN UPHOLDS THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY -CONFUTES HIS ENEMIES - HIS SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND ORIGIN OF THE STAMP-ACTDEAN TUCKER- RECEPTION OF STAMP-ACT IN AMERICA -EXAMINATION BEFORE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS STAMP-ACT REPEALED -VALUE OF HIS SERVICES-OLD SCOTTISH TUNES.

FRANKLIN, on his return to Philadelphia, was received, as already intimated, with the strongest demonstration of respect and affection, by his political as well as personal friends. During his absence he had been, every year elected as one of the representatives of the city to the Provincial Assembly; and as that body was in session when he returned, he soon took his seat as a member. On his appearance in his place, the house proceeded without delay to the consideration of his agency; and a committee having been raised to examine his accounts, unanimously reported, on the 19th of February, 1763, that they had found them to be just. A resolution was thereupon unanimously passed, fixing the period of his agency at six years, and granting him five hundred pounds sterling a year, and the thanks of the house, to be pronounced by the speaker, "to Benjamin Franklin, for his many services, not only to the province of Pennsylvania, but to America in general, during his

late agency at the court of Great Britain.” These thanks were delivered by the Speaker, Mr. Norris, on the 31st of March; to which says the journal “Mr. Franklin, respectfully addressing himself to the Speaker, made answer, that he was thankful to the house for the very handsome and generous allowance they had been pleased to make him for his services; but that the approbation of this house was, in his estimation, far above every other kind of recompense."

In the course of the same spring, Franklin set out on a tour through all the colonies north of Pennsylvania, to examine and regulate the postoffices. In that journey he spent, as he relates in one of his letters, the summer and much of the autumn, travelled about sixteen hundred miles, and did not return to Philadelphia till the beginning of November. He took his daughter with him; and so different were the habits of that time, from those of the present age of steamboats and railroads, that the young lady, as Franklin writes to a friend, kept to her saddle the greatest part of the journey, and was well pleased with her tour."

While in Boston, Franklin met with a fall which dislocated his shoulder; and though the joint was speedily and properly adjusted again, yet it gave him considerable pain, and so much disabled him from driving, or even bearing the motion of his carriage, on the rough roads of that day, that he was obliged to rest awhile from travelling. It appears from a letter to his sister, Mrs. Mecom, written after his return home, and it may be useful to mention the fact, that he used the cold bath frequently and with benefit, not only to his weakened limb, but as a general tonic. The same letter has a passage, which we copy for the sake of the shrewd, and yet good-humored notice it takes, of the annoyance frequently given by a well-meant, but a too busy and officious hos

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pitality. After referring to some little remaining weakness in his shoulder, he adds: "I am otherwise very happy in being at home, where I am allowed to know when I have eat enough, and drank enough, am warm enough, and sit in a place that I like, and nobody knows how I feel better than I do myself."

Notwithstanding the decision, which Franklin had obtained from the Privy Council, that the estates of the Proprietaries were subject to taxation in the same manner as all other property in the province, yet that decision did not restore harmony to the provincial government. The Proprietaries claimed other exclusive privileges and prerogatives, and their defeat on the great point of equal taxation, served only to exasperate them, and their partisans the more, particularly against Franklin, through whose exertions they had been discomfited; and as he continued to exert his great abilities in behalf of impartial legislation, and the rights of the people, with unswerving constancy as well as marked success, he became, more conspicuously than ever, the object of an enmity, which was envenomed by envy, and was manifested by the most unscrupulous misrepresentations of his conduct, and the most calumnious attacks upon his character. He met this hostility, however, with steady self-possession and firmness. He confuted the calumnies of his enemies, and went on discharging his public duties, maintaining the cause of law and order, and at the same time defending popular rights, against proprietary usurpation, with unabated zeal. And, indeed, to such a condition had the provincial administration now become reduced, through the imbecility and mismanagement of the present governor, (John Penn, nephew of Thomas, the principal Proprietary,) and the recklessness of the leading demagogues of his party, that insurrection, riot, murder, and confusion, prevailed so widely in the province,

and the civil authority had become so nearly powerless, that the governor was placed under the humiliating necessity of looking to Franklin for support. A brief statement of facts will illustrate what has just been said.

Though the war between Great Britain and France, had been terminated by the treaty of Paris, in February, 1763, yet the Indian tribes, in the French interest, still continued hostile, and making frequent bloody inroads upon the back settlements, spread terror throughout the western frontiers, which had been left almost totally defenceless, upon the withdrawal of the regular forces. The Pennsylvania frontier was particularly exposed to this savage warfare; and to furnish the protection due to the inhabitants in that quarter, money was granted by the Assembly, to raise and pay troops, and furnish them with all necessary supplies; and Franklin was placed in the board of commissioners, appointed to direct and superintend the expenditure of this money.

As Pennsylvania had no permanently-enrolled and organized militia, it became necessary to raise a military force for every emergency as it arose; and to do so, on this occasion, the Assembly promptly passed a bill for the purpose. That bill gave to each company, to be recruited under it, the right to nominate nine persons, or three for each of the offices of captain, lieutenant, and ensign, from which number, the governor was to select the individuals he might prefer, and commission them. The companies of a regiment being thus organized, their officers were to meet, and nominate three persons for each of the regimental officers, and the governor was to make his own selection, and bestow his commissions, as in the other case. The bill also provided moderate fines for neglect of duty, and what was deemed far more important than all the rest, enacted that all offences committed in this temporary body of troops, should be tried