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There is another circumstance which I would offer to your candid consideration. You describe me as "changing sides, and appearing at the bar of the house of commons to cry down the very measure I had espoused, and direct the storm that was falling upon that minister." As this must have been after my supposed solicitation of the favor for myself or my friend; and Mr. Grenville and Mr. Whately were both in the house at the time, and both asked me questions, can it be conceived that offended as they must have been with such a conduct in me, neither of them should put me in mind of this my sudden changing of sides, or remark it to the house, or reproach me with it, or require my reasons for it? and yet all the members then present know that not a syllable of the kind fell from either of them, or from any of their party.

I persuade myself, that by this time you begin to suspect you may have been misled by your informers. I do not ask who they are, because I do not wish to have particular motives for disliking people, who in general may deserve my respect. They too may have drawn consequences beyond the information they received from others, and hearing the office had been given to a person of my nomination, might as naturally suppose I had solicited it; as Dr. Tucker, hearing that I had solicited it, might conclude" it was for myself.

I desire you to believe that I take kindly, as I ought, your freely mentioning to me that it has long appeared to you, that I much exceeded the bounds of morality in the methods I pursued for the advancement of the supposed interests of America." I am sensible there is a good deal of truth in the adage that our sins and our debts are always more than we take them to be; and though I cannot at present, on examination of my conscience, charge myself with any immorality of that kind, it becomes me to suspect that what has long appeared to you may have some foundation. You are so good as to add that "if it can be proved you have unjustly suspected me, you shall have a satisfaction in acknowleging the error." It is often a thing hard to prove, that suspicions are

unjust, even when we know what they are; and harder when we are unacquainted with them. I must presume, therefore, that in mentioning them you had an intention of communicating the grounds of them to me, if I should request it, which I now do, and, I assure you, with a sincere desire and design of amending what you may show me to have been wrong in my conduct, and to thank you for the admonition.

In your writings I appear a bad man; but if I am such, and you can thus help me to become in reality a good one, I shall esteem it more than a sufficient reparation to, reverend sir, your most obedient humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.

[Note by Dr. Franklin, on the rough draft of the foregoing letter.] Feb. 7, 1775. No answer has been received to the above letter. B. F.

From the preceding correspodence, it is fully evident, that this reverend divine was not willing to acknowlege, or even find that he had substantially erred in regard to Dr. Franklin. His prejudices indeed, appear to have been so deeply rooted, and his desire to do justice to one whom he had wronged, appears to have been so dormant, that he betrays an evident disinclination to ascertain the truth, or allow it to approach him, in opposition to these prejudices. With other more equitable dispositions, it would have been impossible for the dean to abstain so pertinaciously from giving any answer to Dr. Franklin's last letter. The facts and explanations which it contained were so important, and they were stated with so much candor and civility, that the dean must have felt it to be highly incumbent on him, either to meet those facts by others equally conclusive, or to acknowlege that he had wrongfully accused Dr. Franklin. The former he could not do, the latter he would not. The only expedient then remaining, was the unworthy and evasive one of giving no an

swer?

But to return to objects of more public interest. All the expectations that Dr. Franklin had entertained from the good character and disposition of the present minister, lord Dartmouth, in favor of America, began to wither: none of the measures of his predecessor had even been attempted to be changed, but on the contrary new ones had been continually added, further to exasperate the colonies, render them desperate, and drive them into open rebellion.

In a paper written by Dr. Franklin, "On the rise and progress of the differences between Great Britain and her American colonies," and supposed to have been published about this time (1774,) he states, that soon after the late war, it became an object with the British ministers to draw a revenue from America: the first attempt was by a stamp act. It soon appeared, that this step had not been well considered; and that the rights, the ability, the opinions, and temper of that great and growing people, had not been sufficiently attended to. They complained, that the tax was unnecessary, because their assemblies had ever been ready to make voluntary grants to the crown in proportion to their abilities, when duly requir ed so to do; and unjust, because they had no representative in the British parliament, but had parliaments of their own, wherein their consent was given, as it ought to be, in grants of their own money.k

The following arguments on this point were published at the time by an English friend of Dr. Franklin.

1st, The insufficiency of the argument, asserting their being virtually represented, as compared with the unincorporate towns in England, has been already exploded in the letter signed Amor Patriæ, inserted in the Gazetteer, 1st of January last; viz. "The inhabitants of such towns being many of them doubtless legal electors of county members; and otherwise the rest have, by their neighborhood to, and connection with, legal voters of the vicinage, opportunity of acquiring the means of giving instruction to, and influencing the conduct of, not only their proper county members, but those who represent neighboring boroughs also; and the future elections of such members will always in some measure depend on the influence of even many of those who have no legal votes themselves; so have they a strong check on their conduct, which is not the case with

The parliament repealed the act as inexpedient, but in another asserted a right of taxing the colonies, and binding

the Americans, in respect of any one member in the whole house, not a man of them depending on the colonists for his seat in parliament, or for their instructions."

2dly, Another evident reason why the colonies cannot be justly deemed virtually represented, and in consequence thereof, subjected to internal taxation, imposed by parliament, and why they, the colonies, cannot be justly compared with such towns in Great Britain, is because the parliament of Great Britain cannot impose any internal tax on the inhabitants of such towns, but that in so doing they and every member thereof would by the same act tax themselves also in the same proportion, which is a very good security in favor of such towns and other non-electors in Great Britain; but which very good security the colonies in their present state are entirely destitute of, insomuch that if they were now to acknowlege a right in the parliament so to tax them (although in the present case a very small sum) without their previous or concurrent consent, in the present mode of things there is no line drawn that bounds that right, but that the same parliament might (after so dangerous a precedent once adopted) call for any part of their remaining fortunes whenever they pleased so to do, without any other restraint than the mercy and benevolence of (in such case) an arbitrary power over them, and they the colonists might every year after be in danger of hearing of a law (made in Great Britain some months before, and wherein they had no opportunity of pleading for themselves, or of giving their previous or concurrent consent or dissent), which law might, for any other security they could rely on in the present mode of things, take away a quarter, a half, or a larger part of their estates, without a line of any kind of limitation other than the will and power of a parliament, in such case, despotic over their whole fortunes, without their concurrence or co-operation, which it ap pears would be arbitrary in the strongest point of light.

3dly, It therefore appears a fair and necessary conclusion, that Great Britain must in point of equity and the just rights of the colonists as Englishmen, either for ever exempt them from, or never demand any internal taxes at all, or else a right of representation in parliament must be granted them: which last appears evidently a very salutary measure, as necessary to prevent divisions and misunderstandings, and above all to prevent the danger of our enemies thereby in future, as soon as recruited and able, taking advantage thereof (and perhaps sowing the seeds thereof) in order to disunite and weaken this otherwise potent empire, which being properly united, they our enemies do and will look on with envy, and may they do so, but utterly in vain, and that for evermore is my hearty desire. AMOR PATRIÆ.

them in all cases whatsoever! In the following year they laid duties on British manufactures exported to America. On the repeal of the stamp act, the Americans had returned to their wonted good humor and commerce with Great Britain; but this new act for laying duties renewed their uneasiness. These and other grievances complained of by the colonies are succinctly enumerated in Dr. Franklin's paper abovementioned; and the progressive history of the causes of the American discontents in general.

The whole continent of America now began to consider the Boston port bill, as striking essentially at the liberty of all the colonies; and these sentiments were strongly urged and propagated in the American newspapers.

Even those colonies which depended most upon the mother country for the consumption of their productions, entered into associations with the others; and nothing was to be heard of but resolutions for the encouragement of their own manufacturcs, the consumption of home products, the discouragement of foreign articles, and the retrenchment of all superfluities.

Virginia resolved not to raise any more tobacco, unless the grievances of America were redressed. Maryland followed that example: Pennsylvania, and almost all the other colonies, entered into resolutions in the same spirit, with a view to enforce a general redress of grievances.

During these disputes between the two countries, Dr. Franklin invented a little emblematical design, intended to represent the supposed state of Great Britain and her colonies, should the former persist in her oppressive measures, restraining the latter's trade, and taxing their people by laws made by a legislature in which they were not represented. It was engraved on a copper-plate, from which the annexed is a fac simile. Dr. Franklin had many of them struck off on cards, on the back of which he occasionally wrote his notes. It was also printed on a half sheet of paper, with the expla nation and moral which follow it.

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