CHAPTER XXIII.

ABOUT this period, 1768, there were several rumors concerning proposed appointments to be tendered to Dr. Franklin, which resulted in nothing, however, except the giving of new pretexts for accusation to his enemies. It was said that he was to be appointed under secretary to Lord Hillsborough, and that nobleman's first deportment toward him gave color to the report. How widely they afterward separated we have seen. There was a proposal made to him, also, of transferring him from the office of postmaster-general of the colonies to some station under the government; and there appeared at one time so much probability of such a change, that it became a serious matter of debate with Dr. Franklin what would be the best course for him to take in the matter. There is no evidence, however, that he was ever put to the necessity of returning any positive answer to the overtures of the government. He was probably sounded, and as, by his course after the appointment of his son to the government of New Jersey, and by his openly declared opinions, it appeared that he was not a man to be silenced by patronage, the plan of his purchase was abandoned. His famous letter to Lord Kames, which that nobleman never received, and which was probably in the

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possession of the British government at this time, may have had its influence. In that letter, written in 1767, is contained an epitome of the opinions, arguments, predictions, and views of Dr. Franklin, with which the reader is already familiar. There was also something said of procuring his appointment as governor of Massachusetts; and his friends in Pennsylvania, who were looking forward to the change of that government from a proprietary to a royal, also thought of Franklin as governor under the new order of things. But he saw the difficulties in the way of his accepting any royal appointment, and had fully determined to decline had it been offered him. He could not accept the government of a colony with such instructions as he knew, in pursuance of the ministerial policy, must accompany it. The change in the government of Pennsylvania never took place, nor did the ministry think Franklin a suitable person to succeed Governor Bernard of Massachusetts.

Other public business, however, crowded upon him. In 1768 he was appointed agent for Georgia. In 1769 he was chosen agent for New Jersey. In 1770 Massachusetts paid a similar compliment to his sagacity and patriotism. His Pennsylvania agency was continued, and thus, at the well-advanced age of sixty-four, he had the agency of four colonies, in each of which circumstances of peculiar difficulty and embarrassment required the full exercise of his wisdom and prudence. Thus, though anxious to return home, and feeling that his private affairs need

ed his attention, he was detained abroad by the con fidence of his countrymen, which, while it must naturally and properly have gratified his self-love, imposed most arduous duties upon him. And his performance of these was not limited to any mere official routine. He was influenced by higher considerations than the literal compliance with instructions. "Being," he writes to a friend, "born and bred in one of the countries now at variance, and having lived long, and made many agreeable connections of friendship in the other, I wish all prosperity to both; but I have talked and written so much and so long on the subject, that my acquaintance are weary of hearing, and the public of reading any more of it, which begins to make me weary of talking and writing, especially as I do not find I have gained any point in either country except that of rendering myself suspected by my impartiality, in England of being too much an American, and in America of being too much an Englishman."

But, as events ripened, that he was too much an American for the purposes of the English ministry became more than a point of mere suspicion. As he perceived unmistakable indications that the moderation for which he had so earnestly contended was likely to be of little avail, and that ministers were resolved to persist in their plan of coercion, the tone of his correspondence with his American friends grew more like the language which he had at an early period disapproved of in the newspapers. Many of his letters were written to friends in Massachu

setts, particularly to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper, who was an active advocate for popular rights and the cause of the colonies. In a letter to Dr. Cooper, dated April, 1769, he says: "The Parliament remain fixed in their resolution not to repeal the duty acts this session, and will rise next Tuesday. I hope my country folks will remain as fixed in their resolutions of industry and frugality till these acts are repealed; and if I could be sure of that, I should almost wish them never to be repealed, being persuaded that we shall reap more solid and extensive advantages from the steady practice of those two great virtues, than we can possibly suffer damage from all the duties the Parliament of this kingdom can levy on us. They flatter themselves you can not long subsist without their manufactures. They believe you have not virtue enough to persist in such agreements. They imagine the colonies will differ among themselves, deceive and desert one another, and quietly, one after the other, submit to the yoke, and return to the use of British fineries. They think that, though the men may be contented with homespun stuffs, the women will never get the better of their vanity and fondness for English modes and gewgaws. The ministerial people all talk in this strain, and even many of the merchants. I have ventured to assert that they will all find themselves mistaken; and I rely so much on the spirit of my country as to be confident I shall not be found a false prophet, though at present not believed. *** The advantages of your perseverance in industry

and frugality will be great and permanent. Your debts will be paid, your farms will be better improved and yield a greater produce, your real wealth will increase in a plenty of every useful home production, and all the true enjoyments of life, even though no foreign trade should be allowed you, and this handicraft shop-keeping state will, for its own sake, learn to behave more civilly to its customers." It is a lit

tle amusing to note, in the last sentence, the application of epithets to England which were in substance afterward repeated by Napoleon. Franklin wrote in the same strain of encouragement to others, individuals, committees, and public bodies. The measures which he once thought and said would be better carried in silence than with the parade of meetings, resolutions, and associations, he now perceived could be best promoted by the very steps which he had, at first, hesitated to approve. And as Dr. Franklin's plans and views were eminently practical, he took a great interest in the silk culture, suggesting to his correspondents in America the probability of exchanging raw silk for manufactures in England, and thus making the colonies independent of British manufactures, by supplying a commodity in exchange much easier obtained than specie. "When once," he says, "you can raise plenty of silk, you may have manufactures enough from hence." And the experiment was very successfully prosecuted until the Revolutionary troubles put a period to the culture.

In April, 1770, Parliament altered the revenue