American cause, &c. &c. A magnificent supper closed the evening.

Being much fatigued and weakened by the voyage and journey, Dr. Franklin was persuaded to remain some time at M. Gruel's country house, where he was elegantly and commodiously lodged: his strength, indeed, was not equal to an immediate journey to Paris. During his stay at M. Gruel's he was in hopes of living retired, but the house was almost always full of visiters; from whom, however, much useful information was obtained respecting the state of affairs at court, and the character of persons in power, &c. Dr. Franklin also learnt with great satisfaction, that a supply had been obtained from the French government, of two hundred brass fieldpieces, thirty thousand firelocks, and some other military stores; which were then shipping for America, and would be convoyed by a ship of war.

Dr. Franklin at that time did not assume any public character, thinking it prudent first to know whether the court was ready and willing to receive publicly commissioners from the congress; and that he might neither embarrass the ministry on the one hand, nor subject himself and his colleagues to the hazard of a disgraceful refusal on the other, he dispatched an express to Mr. Deane, then in Paris, with the letters he had for him from the committee of congress, and a copy of their joint commission, that he might make the proper inquiries, and give him the necessary information: meantime it was gerally supposed at Nantes that Dr. Franklin was sent to negotiate, and that opinion appeared to give great pleasure.

On the 15th December, Dr. Franklin left Nantes, and shortly after arrived safely at Paris, where he continued to reside till the 7th January following, when he removed with his family to Passy, (a village beautifully situated about a league from the capital,) and took up his abode in a large and handsome house, with extensive gardens, belonging to Mons. Le Ray de Chaumont, a great and useful friend to the American cause: here Dr. Franklin continued during the whole VOL. I. SC

of his residence in France-being about eight years and a half.

The following extracts from letters written by him to one of his intimate friends, shortly after his arrival in Paris, fully show his sentiments relative to the state of American politics at that period, and furnish some insight as to the nature of his mission to France.

To Dr. Ingenhauz.

"I long labored in England with great zeal and sincerity to prevent the breach that has happened, and which is now so wide, that no endeavors of mine can possibly heal it. You know the treatment I met with from that imprudent court: but I keep a separate account of private injuries, which I may forgive; and I do not think it right to mix them with public affairs. Indeed there is no occasion for their aid to whet my resentment against a nation, that has burnt our defenceless towns in the midst of winter, has excited the savages to assassinate our innocent farmers with their wives and children, and our slaves to murder their masters! It 'would therefore be deceiving you, if I suffered you to remain in the supposition you have taken up, that I am come to Europe to make peace: I am in fact ordered hither by the congress for a very different purpose; viz. to procure such aids from European powers, for enabling us to defend our freedom and independence, which it is certainly their interest to grant; as by that means the great and rapidly growing trade of America will be open to them all, and not a monopoly to Great Britain as heretofore: a monopoly, that if she is suffered again to possess, will be such an increase of her strength by sea, and if she can reduce us again to submission, she will have thereby so great an addition to her strength by land, as will, together, make her the most formidable power the world has yet seen; and from her natural pride and insolence in prosperity, of all others the most intolerable."

To the same.

"YOU desire to know my opinion of what will probably be the end of this war; and whether our new establishments will not be thereby reduced again to deserts. I do not, for my part, apprehend much danger of so great an evil to us. I think we shall be able, with a little help, to defend ourselves, our possessions, and our liberties so long, that England will be ruined by persisting in the wicked attempt to destroy them. I must nevertheless regret that ruin, and wish that her injustice and tyranny had not deserved it: and I sometimes flatter myself that, old as I am, I may possibly live to see my country settled in peace and prosperity, when Britain shall make no more a formidable figure among the powers of Europe.

"You put me in mind of an apology for my conduct, which has been expected from me, in answer to the abuses thrown upon me before the privy council. It was partly written, but the affairs of public importance I have been ever since engaged in, prevented my finishing it. The injuries too that my country has suffered, have absorbed private resentments, and made it appear trifling for an individual to trouble the world with his particular justification, when all his compatriots were stigmatized by the king and parliament as being in every respect the worst of mankind! I am obliged to you, however, for the friendly part you have always taken in the defence of my character; and it is indeed no small argument in my favor, that those who have known me most and longest, still love me and trust me with their most important interests, of which my election into the congress by the unanimous voice of the assembly, or parliament of Pennsylvania, the day after my arrival from England, and my present mission hither by the congress itself, are instances incontestable."

Dr. Franklin was privately received with every demonstration of regard and respect by the minister for foreign affairs,

and monsieur le compte de Vergennes; who assured him the other American commissioners, that they should personally enjoy in France" all the security and all the good offices which strangers could receive."z

A conviction of the advantages to be derived from a commercial intercourse with America, and a desire of weakening the British empire, by dismembering it, induced the French court secretly to give assistance in military stores to the Americans, and to listen to proposals of an alliance. But they at first shewed rather a reluctance to the latter measure, which, however, by Dr. Franklin's address, aided by a subsequent important success attending the American arms, was eventually overcome.

The American commissioners began privately to grant letters of marque to a number of French American privateers, which harrassed the English coasting trade, intercepted a great number of British merchant vessels, and took many prisoners. Lord Stormont, his Britannic majesty's ambassador at Versailles, when applied to by the American commissioners relative to an exchange of those prisoners, haughtily and unfeelingly gave them for answer, "that he received no letters from rebels, unless they were to petition his majesty's pardon!!" or words to that effect. His lordship presented several memorials to the French minister, complaining of the equipment of American vessels in the ports of France, bringing in of their prizes, &c. and of the assistance France was underhandedly affording the insurgents; demanding at the same time a categorical answer respecting such conduct.

On this occasion count de Vergennes affected to remonstrate with the American commissioners, and on the 16th July, 1777, wrote to them that they had exceeded the bounds limited at their first interview with him, which were expressly, "That the navigation and commerce with the Americans, should obtain all the facilities in France which were compati

"Toute la sureté et tous les agréments que nous y faisons éprouver aux étrangers."

ble with the due obervance of her treaties with England; that to these principles the king would religiously adhere."a

This remonstrance might also in some measure have been influenced by the very unfavorable accounts latterly received from America, and which bore a most unpromising aspect for the success of the American cause. In England it was generally thought, even by the friends of America, that her struggle for independence was at an end, and that nothing was left for her but unconditional submission. Doctor Fothergill, a particular friend of Dr. Franklin, and a well-wisher to America, in a letter to his nephew, Mr. John Chorley, dated June, 1777, written with the view to its being communicated to Dr. Franklin, (which it shortly after was,) thus expresses himself:

Should thy friend think proper to go to Passy, he may say to Dr. Franklin, that if he has enemies in this country, he has also friends; and must not forget these, because the former are ignorant and malicious, yet all-powerful. He will doubtless inform the doctor, that there remains not a doubt on this side the water, that American resistance is all at an end-that the shadow of congressional authority scarce exists that a general defection from that body is apparentthat their troops desert by shoals-that the officers are discontented—that no new levies can be made-that nothing can withstand the British forces, and prevent them from being masters of the whole continent; in short, that the war is at an end, and that nothing remains to be done, but to divide the country among the conquerors. This is the general language; and that neither France nor Spain will afford them any other than a kind of paralytic aid; enough to enable them to protract a few months longer a miserable existence!"

"Que le navigation et commerce Américans éprouveroient toutes les facilitiés en France, qui seroient compatibles avec l'exacte observance de ses traités avec l'Angleterre; qu'il étoit dans les principes du roi de remplir religieusement."