He approached his death with calmness, and if he had neglected to practice order in his life, he made an orderly preparation for his death. His will, an elaborate document, sought to perpetuate in its provisions of a public nature the utilitarian ideas of its author. He seemed to have remembered his scheme of prizes in his sketch of an English school, and gave £100 to the managers of the Boston free schools, the interest of which was to be devoted to the purchase of silver medals for the encouragement of scholarship in these schools. He sought to make his benevolence immortal; it is said that his scheme is derived from a French work by Mathon de la Cour, but the idea is probably his own, as he had suggested in his loan to Benjamin Webb:

I send you herewith a bill for ten louis d'ors. I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. When you shall return to your country with a good character, you can not fail of getting into some business that will in time enable you to pay all your debts. In that case, when you meet with another honest man in similar dis tress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with such another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands, before it meets with a knave that will stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money. I am not rich enough to afford much in good works, and so am obliged to be cunning and make the most of a little.

Franklin's plan was for the benefit of artisan's and apprentices, and illustrates the utilitarian tendency of his life. It was as follows:

I have considered that among artisans good apprentices are most likely to make good citizens, and having myself been bred to a manual art, printing, in my native town, and afterwards assisted to set up my business in Philadelphia by kind loans of money from two friends there, which was the foundation of my fortune, and of all the utility in life that may be ascribed to me, I wish to be useful even after my death, if possible, in forming and advancing other young men, that may be serviceable to their country in both those towns. To this end I devote two thousand pounds sterling, of which I give one thousand thereof to the inhabitants of the town of Boston, in Massachusetts, and the other thousand to the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia, in trust, to and for the uses, intents, and purposes hereinafter mentioned and declared.

The said sum of one thousand pounds sterling, if accepted by the inhabitants of the town of Boston, shall be managed under the direction of the selectmen, united with the ministers of the oldest Episcopalian, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches in that town, who are to let out the same upon interest at five per cent per annum to such young married artificers, under the age of twenty-five years, as have served an apprenticeship in the said town, and faithfully fulfilled the duties required in their indentures, so as to obtain a good moral character from at least two respectable citizens, who are willing to become their sureties, in a bond with the applicants, for the repayment of the moneys so lent, with interest, according to the terms hereinafter prescribed; all of which bonds are to be taken for Spanish milled dollars, or the value thereof in current gold coin; and the managers shall keep a bound book or books, wherein shall be entered the names of those who shall apply for and receive the benefits of this institution, and of their securities, together with the sums lent, the dates, and other necessary and proper records respecting the business and concerns of this institution. And as these loans are intended to assist young married artificers in setting up their business, they are to be proportioned, by the discretion of the managers, so as not to exceed sixty pounds sterling to one person, nor to be less than fifty pounds; and if the number of appliers so entitled should be so large as that the sum will not suffice to afford to each as much as might otherwise not be

improper, the proportion to each shall be diminished, so as to afford to every one some assistance. These aids may, therefore, be small at first, but, as the capital increases by the accumulated interest, they will be more ample. And, in order to serve as many as possible in their turn, as well as to make the repayment of the principal borrowed more easy, each borrower shall be obliged to pay, with the yearly interest, one tenth part of the principal, which sums of the principal and interest, so paid in, shall be again let out to fresh borrowers.

And, as it is presumed that there will always be found in Boston virtuous and benevolent citizens, willing to bestow a part of their time in doing good to the rising generation, by superintending and managing this institution gratis, it is hoped that no part of the money will, at any time be dead or be diverted to other purposes, but be continually augmenting by the interest; in which case there may, in time, be more than the occasion in Boston shall require, and then some may be spared to the neighboring or other towns in the said State of Massachusetts, who may desire to have it; such towns engaging to pay punctually the interest and the portions of the principal annually to the inhabitants of the town of Boston.

If this plan is executed, and succeeds as projected without interruption, for one hundred years, the sum will then be one hundred and thirty-one thousand pounds; of which I would have the managers of the donation to the town of Boston then lay out at their discretion one hundred thousand pounds in public works, which may be judged of the most general utility to the inhabitants; such as fortifications, bridges, aqueducts, public buildings, baths, pavements, or whatever may make living in the town more convenient to its people, and render it more agreeable to strangers resorting thither for health or a temporary residence. The remaining thirty-one thousand pounds I would have continued to be let out on interest, in the manner above directed for another hundred years, as I hope it will have been found that the institution has had a good effect on the conduct of youth, and been of service to many worthy characters and useful citizens. At the end of this second term, if no unfortunate accident has prevented the operation, the sum will be four millions and sixty-one thousand pounds sterling; of which I leave one million sixtyone thousand pounds to the disposition of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, and three millions to the disposition of the government of the State, not presuming to carry my views further.

All the directions herein given respecting the disposition and management of the donation to the inhabitants of Boston, I would have observed respecting that to the inhabitants of Philadelphia only, as Philadelphia is incorporated, I request the corporation of that city to undertake the management, agreeably to the said directions; and I do hereby vest them with fully and ample powers for that purpose."

Such was the plan adopted by Franklin, for the benefit of a class he always loved-skillful, honest mechanics. We shall have to state, by and by, what success has attended the benevolent project.

In 1789 he was rarely free from pain and was confined to his bed much of the time; we learn of him by his letters, which though less frequent, were equal to any that have made his correspondence so valuable and interesting. Though suffering great agony he attempts mental relief in reading Johnson's Lives of the Poets, and a life of Watts, his favorite author. His opinion of Watts anticipated the judgment of thousands who have found that poet their comfort. It was at this time also that he wrote his protest against the study of Latin and Greek in preference to the study of English,' in which, as we have said, he anticipated the reforms in modern education.

See observations relating to the intentions of the original founders of the Academy, in Philadelphia, June, 1789. Supra.

1

!

In August, 1787, the Library Company,' the outgrowth of the Junto of half a century before, laid the corner-stone of its new building in Philadelphia on Fifth street, opposite the State House.

Franklin, unable on account of his infirmities to attend the ceremony, wrote the inscription for the corner-stone, omitting any mention of himself. The committee amended the inscription, which reads:

Be it remembered

In honor of the Philadelphia Youth,
(then chiefly artificers)
that in MDCCXXXI.,

they cheerfully,

at the instance of Benjamin Franklin,
one of their number,

instituted the Philadelphia Library,
which, though small at first,

is become highly valuable and extensively useful
and which the walls of this edifice

are now destined to contain and preserve,
the first stone of whose foundation
was here placed,

the thirty-first day of August, 1789.2

Perhaps no institution founded by Franklin illustrates his sagacity and usefulness better than the Philadelphia Library. We referred briefly to its origin in the Junto. In 1880 a new library building was erected at the corner of Juniper and Locust streets, and in 1878 the magnificent structure known as the Ridgeway Branch at Broad and Christian was erected. The report of the Library Company in May, 1892, shows that during the year then ending there had been at the Locust street building 77,397 visitors on week days, 41,361 books had been taken out, and that there had been 6,074 visitors on Sundays who had asked at the desk for 5,387 books. At the Ridgeway Branch there had been on week days 3,325 visitors, 1,329 books had been given out, and 4,490 had been used in the Library, and on Sundays there had been 1,561 visitors, using 856 books. The volumes added to the Ridgeway Branch, to the Loganian Library, and to the Library Company, for the Locust Street building was 4,296, making a total number of books in the Library of 166,714 volumes. The receipts of the Li brary Company for 1891-'92 were $68,665.56 and the balance carried forward to the credit of the Company for the year in the treasury was $18,165.67. This magnificent showing illustrates the splendid outgrowth of Franklin's idea in founding a circulating library which started in 1732 with a membership of 12 persons and a voluntary contribution of some fifty books.

1 By an order of the directors of the Library Company, August 31, 1774, the delegates to the first Continental Congress were allowed the use of such of the books of the library as they might have occasion for during the sitting. (Elliots Debates, Vol. 1, 43).

The original stone was discovered a few years ago, and is now set in the north wall of the Library building, Locust and Juniper streets.

The last public act of Franklin was in keeping with his whole philosophy of life; it was his reply, written on the 23d of March, 1790, but 26 days before his death, to a speech of Mr. Jackson in the Congress of the United States, on slavery. It was addressed to the editor of the Federal Gazette, and is in Franklin's happiest style. The essay pretended to be a speech delivered in the Divan of Algiers in 1687, against the petition of the sect called Erika or Purists who prayed for the abolition of piracy and slavery as being unjust. All the arguments advanced in favor of negro slavery were applied in this speech with equal force in the justification of the plundering and enslaving of Europeans. "Dr. Stuber, a distinguished Philadelphian of that day," says Parton, "mentions that many persons searched the book stores and libraries of the town for 'Martin's Account of his Consulship, anno 1687,' from which the speech of Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim was said to have been taken."1

This grand protest against slavery was a happy bequest of Franklin to mankind. From his persuasion

That equal liberty was originally the portion, and is still the birth-right, of all men, and influenced by the strong ties of humanity, and the principles of their institution to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bands of slavery, and promote a general enjoyment of the blessings of freedom.

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A few days before his death, in reply to a request from his old friend Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, asking him to give his portrait for the college library, Franklin answered with respect to his own religious opinions:

Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. The most acceptble service we render to him is doing good to his other children. The soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them, as you do, in whatever sect I meet with them.

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar mark of displeasure.

I shall only add, respecting myself, that, having experienced the goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously through a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness.

P. S.-I confide that you will not expose me to criticisms and censures by publishing any part of this communication to you. I have ever let others enjoy their religious sentiments without reflecting on them for those that appeared to me unsupport

See the article in full Bigelow, Vol. X.

able or even absurd. All sects here, and we have a great variety, have experienced my good will in assisting them with subscriptions for the building their new places of worship; and, as I have never opposed any of their doctrines, I hope to go out of the world in peace with them all.

As death approached and his strength failed, his breathing became oppressed and some one suggested a change of position that he might breathe easier; Franklin, conscious of the change through which he was passing, said, "A dying man can do nothing easy." Soon after he passed away.'

The news of Franklin's death was received with sorrow throughout the civilized world. The city of his adoption gave him an honorable burial. Four days after his death his body was laid at rest by the side of his beloved wife in the burial ground of Christ Church on Arch street, near Fifth.2

In the House of Representatives, on the 22d of April, James Madison spoke of Franklin as "an illustrious character whose native genius has rendered distinguished service to the cause of science and of mankind in general, and whose patriotic exertions have contributed in a high degree to the independence and prosperity of this country."

At Yale College its president, Dr. Stiles, preached a sermon on the character of Franklin, and at the request of the American Philosophical Society, Dr. William Smith, one of its members, pronounced the well-known eulogy on the character and services of Franklin.

On the 11th of June Mirabeau spoke before the National Legislature of France in eulogy of Franklin. His speech has been long familiar to Americans in their reading books, although in late years it has not been so frequently printed.

Franklin is dead! The genius that freed America and poured a flood of light over Europe has returned to the bosom of the Divinity.

The sage whom two worlds claim as their own, the man for whom the history of science and the history of empires contend with each other, held, without doubt, a high rank in the human race.

Too long have political cabinets taken formal note of the death of those who were

'He died April 17, 1790, at 11 p. m., aged 84 years, 3 months, and 11 days. 2The order of the procession was: All the clergy of the city before the corpse; the corpse, carried by citizens; the pall, supported by the president of the State, the chief-justice, the president of the bank, Samuel Powell, William Bingham, and David Rittenhouse, esquires; mourners, consisting of the family of the deceased with a number of particular friends; the secretary and members of the supreme executive council; the speaker and members of the general assembly; judges of the supreme court and other officers of the Government; the gentlemen of the bar; the mayor and corporation of the city of Philadelphia; the printers of the city with their journeymen and apprentices; the philosophical society, the college of physicians; the Cincinnati; the college of Philadelphia; sundry other societies, together with a numerous and respectable body of citizens.

The concourse of spectators was greater than ever was known on a like occasion. It is computed that not less than twenty thousand persons attended and witnessed the funeral, the order and silence which prevailed during the procession deeply evinced the heartfelt sense entertained by all classes of citizens, of the unparallelled virtues, talents, and services of the deceased.