lected, we found above twelve hundred signatures, and, other copies being dispersed in the country, the subscribers amounted at length to upwards of ten thousand. These all furnished themselves, as soon as they could, with arms, formed themselves into companies and regiments, chose their own officers, and met every week to be instructed in the manual exercise, and other parts of military discipline. The women, by subscriptions among themselves, provided silk colors, which they presented to the companies, painted with different devices and mottoes, which I supplied."

The ladies also provided "the officers' halfpikes and spontoons, and even the halberds and drums."

Franklin was elected colonel of the Philadelphia regiment, but he declined the office, recommending Mr. Lawrence, "a fine person, and a man of influence," who was appointed.

A battery was needed below the town, and Franklin, ever fertile in resources, proposed a lottery to defray the expense of building it, and furnishing it with cannon. Lotteries were then, and later, considered very proper means of raising money for good objects, even religious, but they are now justly regarded as very objectionable, and are forbidden by law in most of the States. The lottery in this case proved successful, and the battery was built. Some cannon were bought in Boston, and more were sent for from London. Application was made to Gov. Clinton, of New York, for the loan of cannon for immediate service, Franklin, Colonel Lawrence and others being commissioned to visit New York for that purpose. The governor at first

gave a plump refusal, but at a dinner with his Council, being mellowed with much wine, he so far relented as to offer six.

"After a few more bumpers," says Franklin, "he advanced to ten, and at length he very good-naturedly conceded eighteen. They were fine cannon, eighteenpounders, with their carriages, which were soon transported, and mounted on our batteries; where the association kept a nightly guard, while the war lasted; and among the rest I regularly took my turn of duty there, as a common soldier."

The proprietaries were not pleased with these popular measures. They were illegal, they said, and would be a dangerous precedent, by encouraging the people to put forth new claims to civil privileges, threatening their own prerogatives as masters of the province. They also opposed them on the ground of religious principle, war being, in their opinion, wholly unchristian.

But the governor and council were pleased with Franklin's activity in these operations. They took him into their confidence, and consulted him in every measure where their concurrence was thought advantageous to the military association.

Franklin proposed a fast, "to promote reformation, and implore the blessing of Heaven," which the magistrates just mentioned approved of. But the Secretary being at a loss how to word such a proclamation, this being the first fast ever held in that province, Franklin's ready pen was called into requisition.

"My education in New England," he says, "where a fast is proclaimed every year, was here of some advantage; I drew it in the accustomed style; it was translated into German, printed in both languages, and circulated through the province. This gave the clergy of the different sects an opportunity of influencing their congregations to join the Association, and it would probably have been general among all but the Quakers, if the peace (of 1748) had not soon intervened."

Franklin was told that his activity in these affairs would be likely to lose him the friendship of the Quakers, who were a great majority in the Assembly, and that at the next election he would be put out of his clerkship. A young man who desired the office, and who announced that he expected to get it, advised Franklin as a friend to resign. Franklin replied, that it was a rule with him never to ask an office, and never to refuse one when offered; and he added:

"I approve of this rule, and shall practice it with a small addition; I shall never ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an office. If they will have my office of clerk to dispose of it to another, they shall take it from me. I will not, by giving it up, lose my right of some time or other making reprisal on my adversaries."

But he was unanimously re-elected, and he had some reason to believe that the defence of the country was not disagreeable to any of the Assembly, provided they were not required to assist in it. "And I found," he adds, "that a much greater number of them than I could

have imagined, though against offensive war, were clearly for defensive. Many pamphlets pro and con were published on the subject, and some by good Quakers, in favor of defence; which I believe convinced most of their young people."

CHAPTER XX.

Peace Concluded. An Academy.-"Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth."-Plan of Education.- How Franklin became a Member of the Board.-A Charity School.-Philosophical Studies.-Buys Dr. Spence's Apparatus.- Commissioner of the Peace.-Alderman. -Member of the Assembly.-Letter from his Mother.-Postscript from his Sister.-Charles Sumner. His Son elected Clerk. One of a Commission to treat with the Indians.- Conduct of the Indians.-Effect of Ardent Spirits. -A Hospital. How he obtained a Subscription. The Subject in the Assembly. — His Views about caring for the Poor.-Improvement of the Streets. Becomes Postmaster General. Receives the Degree of Master of Arts.- Dignity of Labor.- On Luxury.—The Farmer at Cape May.

"PEACE being concluded," says Franklin, "and the Association business therefore at an end, I turned my thoughts again to the affair of establishing an Academy." This was in 1749. Again he wrote a pamphlet, entitled, Proposals relating to the Education of youth in Pennsylvania, which was distributed gratis among the