NOW FIRST EDITED FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS AND FROM HIS PRINTED CORRESPONDENCE AND OTHER WRITINGS, BY JOHN BIGELOW. VOL. I. " Plurimæ consentiunt gentes populi primarium fuisse virum." CICERO DE SENECTUTE (Catonis), 2 61. PHILADELPHIA: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by JOHN BIGELOW, E FR LIPPINCOTT's PRESS, PHILADELPHIA. 1875 PREFACE. The memoirs of his own life, which Dr. Franklin began but never finished, terminated with his arrival in England, in 1757, as agent of the Colony of Pennsylvania. He was then fifty-one years of age, and just entering upon that part of his public career in which his marvellous talents appear to the greatest advantage. From this time until 1785 he resided abroad, as agent of the colonies or as minister plenipotentiary of the United States; his two brief visits to his native land, in 1762 and in 1775, scarcely constituting an interruption of his protracted foreign service. During this long period of twenty-eight years, he was, of course, in constant correspondence, officially, with the governments he represented, and unofficially with prominent public men, and with his family and friends, both at home and abroad. During the five years that elapsed between his final return from Europe, in 1785, and his death, he naturally maintained an active correspondence with his numerous |