Read, then, the man; - does truth his actions guide, As son, as father, husband, brother, friend? Nothing can please me more, than to see your philosophical improvements, when you have leisure to communicate them to me. I still owe you a long letter on that subject, which I shall pay. I am vexed with Mr. James, that he has been so dilatory in Mr. Madison's Armonica. I was unlucky in both the workmen, that I permitted to undertake making those instruments. The first was fanciful, and never could work to the purpose, because he was ever conceiving some new improvement, that answered no end. The other I doubt is absolutely idle. I have recommended a number to him from hence, but must stop my hand. Adieu, my dear Polly, and believe me, as ever, with the sincerest esteem and regard, your truly affectionate friend and humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. P S. My love to Mrs. Tickell and Mrs. Rooke, and to Pitty, when you write to her. Mrs. Franklin and Sally desire to be affectionately remembered to you. I find the printed poetry I intended to enclose will be too bulky to send. I shall send it by a ship, that goes shortly from hence. FROM RICHARD JACKSON TO B. FRANKLIN. Congratulation on his Arrival in America. - Pennsylvania Affairs. DEAR SIR, London, 4 April, 1763. I received your favors by the packet, as well as those by the Carolina. I had before the pleasure to hear of your safe arrival from Mr. Strahan, which was the more acceptable, because the time that had elapsed since your sailing was rather too long, and gave your friends room for apprehensions. I have before wished you joy on Mr. Franklin's promotion. I doubt not it will give as much pleasure to the Province of New Jersey, as to him and your friends. I saw him a day or two before he left London, and acquainted him with my situation, as to a seat in Parliament. I was then pretty secure; but I shall never be sanguine again as long as I live, though I was not disappointed on this occasion. In fact I was chosen for Wymouth the week in which the Parliament met in November, and have made as prudent a use of my seat since that time as I have been able. A seat in Parliament, in this kingdom, is, you know, usually built on negotiation, and those negotiations, in the course of which I met with some traverses, took up most of my last summer, so that I could complete but the skeleton of my work. I think, however, the most difficult part is finished; perhaps I might have said so, if I had only begun it. I shall certainly complete it this summer, though I do not mean to publish it as complete as I make it. It will be necessary that it should not be too long. The Speaker has frequently inquired after you in a very particular manner. He did so when I dined with him yesterday, expressing great pleasure in knowing of your safe arrival, and insisted on my remembering to send his compliments. I think I collect from Mr. Charles, who you see is now comptroller at the post-office, that his discontent conceived against the Assembly of Pennsylvania was upon their refusal to abide by his and your opinion at the Council, upon the Supply Bill.* I met Mr. Penn yesterday, who was very civil to me. Though nothing could give me more pleasure than to hear of your safe arrival and health, I had less pleasure in hearing of the joy universally expressed at Philadelphia on the occasion. In truth, this was nothing but what I well knew before The legislation of Pennsylvania was, at this period, subject to extraordinary embarrassments. In the first place, the Proprietors, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, possessed the same rights and property in the province, that had belonged to their father, William Penn; but they resided in England, and governed the province by a deputy, whom they bound by inflexible instructions, from which he had no discretion to deviate. It was necessary, that all bills passed by the Assembly, before they could become laws, should be approved by the governor. It was further necessary, that these laws should then be sent over to England, examined by the Board of Trade, reported to the King's Council, and at last receive the royal sanction. Notwithstanding the instructions of the Proprietors to their deputy-governor, laws would sometimes receive his signature, which they did not approve; and, in such cases, when the laws came before the Board of Trade and the Council, they would use their interest to defeat them and procure their repeal. In 1760, seven laws were sent over, which the Proprietors disliked, and opposed before the Board. They succeeded in obtaining the repeal of six of them. The seventh, being an act for raising one hundred thousand pounds for the public service, chiefly to aid in carrying on the war, though it was declared objectionable, was nevertheless allowed to stand, against the wish of the Proprietors, in consideration of engagements entered into at the time by Dr. Franklin and Mr. Charles, agents for the province, that the Assembly should remove certain objections by a supplementary act. The objections will be understood by a brief recital of the proposed amendments; namely, "That all money raised shall be disposed of by the joint consent of the governor and Assembly; that it shall be clear would be the case, notwithstanding Dr. Smith's opinion or intelligence. I was the better pleased with your account of Madeira, because the day I received your letter was the second of our sitting on a committee to inquire into its state, in order, with other facts, to lay a foundation for extending thither the indulgence already given to rice in Europe south of Cape Finisterre. I had from Mr. Moore, the clerk of Assembly, through the hands of Messrs. Sergeant and Aufren, a manifest of forces employed by your province in 1760 and 1761. It came not to me till some months after it reached London, being misdirected, yet soon enough; because I fear it will be of no use, as the Lords of ly expressed and declared, that the waste lands belonging to the Proprietors shall not be taxed; that the located unimproved land belonging to the Proprietors shall be rated at the lowest that any other man's is rated; that lands ungranted in and about towns, belonging to the Proprietors, shall be taxed at the rate of other located unimproved land; that the Proprietors' rents shall be paid them in the value of sterling money, as if no paper money was issued; that a number of commissioners shall be named in the bill to sit in Philadelphia to hear appeals from the several counties." The Assembly never fulfilled the engagement of their agents. They appointed commissioners to examine the operation of the act, in regard to the taxing of various kinds of lands, who reported, that the Proprietors stood precisely on the same footing as other owners of land; and that the law was perfectly equal and just in its effects. As to paying the Proprietors' rents in sterling money, when all other persons were obliged to be contented with a paper currency of less value, it was thought inequitable, especially as the laws authorizing this currency had been approved by the Proprietors, and as there was no good reason why their property should be exempted from the necessary consequences of these laws. The agents assented to the engagement as the only mode of saving the act, which was of the utmost importance to the public service at that time, and they were never censured for the part they took, although the Assembly refused to ratify what they did. The governor brought the subject often before the Assembly, and sometimes in long messages, to which they replied. The arguments on both sides are contained in the printed Votes and Proceedings of the Assembly for the year 1761, and particularly under the dates of February 14th, and March 14th. the Treasury have resolved not to depart from the general's returns, who has allowed the province thirteen hundred and fifty men in 1760, but none in the last year. I know not the reason for this, unless he is pleased to suppose that the nine hundred and sixtyfive men employed in 1761 were for the provincial defence only; yet they were under his command. Perhaps it is a mistake. I shall write by the packet to Mr. Moore; and, as the money will not be probably distributed for a great while, there will be time for the general, upon application made to him, to set things right. I am, &c. RICHARD JACKSON. TO JONATHAN WILLIAMS.* LOVING KINSMAN, Philadelphia, 13 April, 1763. You may remember, that about ten years since, when I was at Boston, you and my brother sent directions here to attach on Grant's right to some land here, by virtue of a mortgage given him by one Pitt. Nothing effectual could be done in it at that time, there being a prior mortgage undischarged. That prior mortgage is now near expiring, and Grant's will take place. Pitt's widow is desirous of being enabled to sell the place, which cannot be done, without paying off Grant's mortgage. Therefore, if your old demand * Jonathan Williams resided at Boston. He married a niece of Dr. Franklin's, by the name of Grace Harris, and was the father of Jonathan Williams, who acted as a commercial agent for the United States in France during a large part of the revolution, and whose name often occurs in the course of this correspondence. The father died at his son's residence, near Philadelphia, on the 17th of September, 1796; and the son, after filling important stations as a colonel of engineers, and superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, died May 20th, 1815. |