bidding a Maypole. He heard their altercation with great patience, and then gravely determined thus; "You, that are for having no Maypole, shall have no Maypole; and you, that are for having a Maypole, shall have a Maypole. Get about your business, and let me hear no more of this quarrel.” *

Your compliment of gold and wisdom is very obliging to me, but a little injurious to your country. The various value of every thing in every part of this world arises, you know, from the various proportions of the quantity to the demand. We are told, that gold and silver in Solomon's time were so plenty, as to be of no more value in his country than the stones in the street. You have here at present just such a plenty of wisdom. Your people are, therefore, not to be censured for desiring no more among them than they have; and if I have any, I should certainly carry it where, from its scarcity, it may probably come to a better market.

I nevertheless regret extremely the leaving a country in which I have received so much friendship, and friends whose conversation has been so agreeable and so improving to me; and that I am henceforth to reside at so great a distance from them is no small mortification to, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN.

P. S. My respectful compliments, if you please, to Sir Alexander Dick, Lord Kames, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Russel, and any other inquiring friends. I shall write to them before I leave the Island.

• Lord Marischal was a person of consideration in Neufchâtel, to whom Dr. Franklin had communicated, through Mr. Hume, a paper containing directions for putting up lightning rods. See Vol. VI. p 241.

TO MISS MARY STEVENSON.

DEAR POLLY,

London, 7 June, 1762.

I received your favor of the 27th past, and have since expected your intended philosophical epistle. But you have not had leisure to write it!

Your good mamma is now perfectly well, as I think, excepting now and then a few rheumatic complaints, which, however, seem gradually diminishing. I am glad to hear you are about to enjoy the happiness of seeing and being with your friends at Bromley. My best respects to the good Dr. and Mrs. Hawkesworth, and say to the dear ladies, that I kiss their hands respectfully and affectionately.

Our ships for America do not sail so soon as I expected; it will be yet five or six weeks before we embark, and leave the old world for the new. I fancy I feel a little like dying saints, who, in parting with those they love in this world, are only comforted with the hope of more perfect happiness in the next. I have, in America, connexions of the most engaging kind; and, happy as I have been in the friendships here contracted, those promise me greater and more lasting felicity. But God only knows whether these promises shall be fulfilled. Adieu, my dear good girl, and believe me ever your affectionate friend,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO MISS MARY STEVENSON.

MY DEAR POLLY,

Portsmouth, 11 August, 1762.

This is the best paper I can get at this wretched inn, but it will convey what is intrusted to it as faithfully as the finest. It will tell my Polly how much her friend is afflicted, that he must, perhaps, never again see one for whom he has so sincere an affection, joined to so perfect an esteem; who he once flattered himself might become his own, in the tender relation of a child, but can now entertain such pleasing hopes no more. Will it tell how much he is af

flicted? No, it cannot. Adieu, my dearest child. I will call you so. Why should I not call you so, since I love you with all the tenderness of a father? Adieu. May the God of all goodness shower down his choicest blessings upon you, and make you infinitely happier, than that event would have made you. And, wherever I am, believe me to be, with unalterable affection, my dear Polly, your sincere friend,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO LORD KAMES.

Farewell on leaving England. - Favorable Notice of his "Elements of Criticism."

MY DEAR LORD,

Portsmouth, 17 August, 1762

I am now waiting here only for a wind to waft me to America, but cannot leave this happy island and my friends in it, without extreme regret, though I am going to a country and a people that I love. I am

going from the old world to the new; and I fancy I feel like those, who are leaving this world for the next; grief at the parting; fear of the passage; hope of the future. These different passions all affect their minds at once; and these have tendered me down exceedingly. It is usual for the dying to beg forgiveness of their surviving friends, if they have ever offended them.

Can you, my Lord, forgive my long silence, and my not acknowledging till now the favor you did me in sending me your excellent book? Can you make some allowance for a fault in others, which you have never experienced in yourself; for the bad habit of postponing from day to day, what one every day resolves to do to-morrow? A habit that grows upon us with years, and whose only excuse is we know not how to mend it. If you are disposed to favor me, you will also consider how much one's mind is taken up and distracted by the many little affairs one has to settle before the undertaking such a voyage, after so long a residence in a country; and how little, in such a situation, one's mind is fitted for serious and attentive reading; which, with regard to the Elements of Criticism, I intended before I should write. I can now only confess and endeavour to amend. In packing up my books, I have reserved yours to read on the passage. I hope I shall therefore be able to write to you upon it soon after my arrival. At present I can only return my thanks, and say that the parts I have read gave me both pleasure and instruction; that I am convinced of your position, new as it was to me, that a good taste in the arts contributes to the improvement of morals; and that I have had the satisfaction of hearing the work universally commended by those who have read it.

And now, my dear Sir, accept my sincere thanks for the kindness you have shown me, and my best wishes of happiness to you and yours. Wherever I am, I shall esteem the friendship you honor me with as one of the felicities of my life; I shall endeavour to cultivate it by a more punctual correspondence; and I hope frequently to hear of your welfare and prosperity. Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever most affectionately yours,

B. FRANKLIN.*

TO MR. WHITEFORD.

William Franklin appointed Governor of New Jersey.

-The Taking of Havana. in America.- British Lyre.

DEAR SIR,

Painting and Poetry

Philadelphia, 7 December, 1762.

I thank you for your kind congratulations on my son's promotion and marriage. If he makes a good governor and husband, (as I hope he will, for I know he has good principles and a good disposition,) these events will both of them give me continual pleasure.†

* Dr. Franklin sailed for America immediately after writing this letter. He had been in England five years, having arrived there in July, 1757. For a vote of thanks by the Assembly of Pennsylvania for his services while in England, see Vol. IV. p. 154.

† William Franklin was appointed governor of New Jersey about the time that his father left England. The place was conferred by Lord Bute; and it is supposed, that Sir John Pringle's influence had much weight, he being physician to Lord Bute, and also a very warm friend to Dr. Franklin. The Proprietors of Pennsylvania, it would seem, entertained favorable hopes from this appointment. Thomas Penn, in a letter to Governor Hamilton, dated February 11th, 1763, said, "I am told you will find Mr. Franklin more tractable, and I be