Of

mischievous consequences to our credit here." the offer of places and peerage, Franklin says, "This offer to corrupt us, sir, is with me your credential, and convinces me that you are not a private volunteer in your application. It bears the stamp of British court character. It is even the signature of your king." And thus, with contemptuous disdain, Franklin dismissed the promises of the anonymous writer, as with calm courage he had met his threats.

The official and semi-official correspondence of Franklin during his residence in France would of itself have furnished employment sufficient for a man of ordinary habits of application; and yet he found leisure for much besides, in his agreeable personal intercourse and in philosophical pursuits. A great source of annoyance to him was the repeated and incessant demand for letters of introduction to the commander-in-chief in America, or to Congress, the idea having become prevalent that he was sent to France to engage officers. He writes, in relation to this subject, to a friend, with some tartness, though relieved by a touch of pleasantry. "I am worried from morning till night. The noise of every coach now that enters my court terrifies me. I am afraid to accept an invitation to dine abroad, being almost sure to meet with some officer or officer's friend, who, as soon as I am put in good humor by a glass or two of Champaign, begins his attack upon me. Luckily, I do not in my sleep dream of these vexatious situations, or I should be afraid of what are now my only hours of comfort. If, therefore, you

have the least remaining kindness for me—if you would not help to drive me out of France, let this, your twenty-third application, be your last."

To such a pitch did the evil grow, that the witty doctor actually prepared a form, which William Temple Franklin states that he certainly used in some instances, to shame applicants out of their importunity, of whom he could get rid in no other way: "The bearer of this presses me to give him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name. I must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be." One can imagine the blank looks of an applicant upon reading a testimonial couched in the usual forms, with such a declaration and reference as the above for its pith. Too complaisant listening to applications for employment in the army of the United States was the cause of Mr. Deane's being recalled by Congress. He left, on his return, in April, 1778, and was succeeded by Mr. John Adams. He had made agreements with French officers which Congress found it impossible to confirm. Franklin wrote more than once in exculpation and vindication of his colleague in this particular; for it was exceedingly difficult, and in many cases would have been impolitic, to refuse applications in which the powerful were interested. Franklin and Deane united in the recommendation of Lafayette; and we need remind, no American reader that their

eulogy in this case was merited, and their judgment fully vindicated.

Mr. Adams remained in Paris as commissioner only until the autumn of the year in which he arrived. The commission was dissolved, and Dr. Franklin was appointed minister plenipotentiary Mr. Arthur Lee, the other commissioner, had an appointment to Spain, but remained in Paris. From Mr. Lee, and from Mr. Ralph Izard, Dr. Franklin experienced a great deal of annoyance and enmity. The first was exhibited in captious differences about the public business, and the personal and official relations of the commissioners; and the latter was excited in letters to America, making charges and insinuations of a weighty character against Franklin Mr. Lee's unhappy temper toward the doctor was exhibited in England while they were in that country together. He quarreled with his other colleague in France, Mr. Deane, before Franklin's arrival; and he labored to procure the sending of Mr. Deane to

one court and Dr. Franklin to another, leaving himself in France, that he might have an opportunity to call upon them for their accounts, which he thus darkly intimated needed examination; an object which he said could thus be reached without an appearance of intention, and thus, he says, “save both the public and me." We have not space, nor is it necessary, to go into a circumstantial account of all the intrigues to which Dr. Franklin's enemies resorted, and the littlenesses" (an awkward word, but expressive) of which they were capable. Franklin was not unadvised of any part of their proceedings. While he did not permit the public business to be injured by differences between the agents of the United States abroad, he replied with sufficient directness and spirit to direct insults; but, proud in his conscious integrity, he did not attempt to meet or reply to the charges against him which were sent to America, not, be it understood, formally and officially, but to operate on individual minds, and thus procure his injury in Congress without giving him an opportunity to vindicate himself. He expressed his confidence that such injustice would not be done him; and that confidence was well founded. Although some of the members, and other influential men in America, of correct minds and pure patriotism, were to some extent swayed by the efforts, incessant and artful, to injure Franklin, and to make the foreign affairs of the United States appear as if in a desperate condition through his remissness and mismanagement, the truth prevailed. Facts, and the

unsought testimony of the disinterested, showed that Franklin had effected, and was effecting with the court of France, what no other man could. It is related of Jefferson, that when he succeeded Dr. Franklin as minister to France, and some one said to him, "You have come to fill Dr. Franklin's place," he replied, "Oh no, sir; no man living can do that; but I am appointed to succeed him." By repeated proofs of confidence, Congress showed that this opinion was not peculiar to Mr. Jefferson. The verdict of posterity has endorsed that opinion; and if the assailants of Dr. Franklin are remembered, it will be from the character and eminence of the man they attacked, not for any credit that their allegations against him possessed.