even to acknowledge the receipt of it, of which please to give a hint to brother John.

We have had a very healthy summer and a fine harvest; the country is filled with bread; but, as trade declines since the war began, I know not what our farmers will do for a market. I am your affectionate and dutiful son, B. FRANKLIN.

TO JOHN FRANKLIN, AT BOSTON.

Humorous Remarks on the Expedition against Cape

Breton.*

Philadelphia, 1745.

Our people are extremely impatient to hear of your success at Cape Breton. My shop is filled with thirty inquiries at the coming in of every post. Some wonder the place is not yet taken. I tell them I shall be glad to hear that news three months hence. Fortified towns are hard nuts to crack; and your teeth have not been accustomed to it. Taking strong places is a particular trade, which you have taken up without serving an apprenticeship to it. Armies and veterans need skilful engineers to direct them in their attack. Have you any? But some seem to think forts are as easy taken as snuff. Father Moody's prayers look tolerably modest. You have a fast and prayer day for that purpose; in which I compute five hundred thousand petitions were offered up to the same effect in New England, which added to the petitions of every family morning and evening, multiplied by the number of days since January 25th, make forty-five millions of

* The expedition against Cape Breton proved successful, by the surrender of Louisburg, on the 17th of June. The news arrived in Boston on the 3d of July.

prayers; which, set against the prayers of a few priests in the garrison, to the Virgin Mary, give a vast balance in your favor.

If you do not succeed, I fear I shall have but an indifferent opinion of Presbyterian prayers in such cases, as long as I live. Indeed, in attacking strong towns I should have more dependence on works, than on faith; for, like the kingdom of heaven, they are to be taken by force and violence; and in a French garrison I suppose there are devils of that kind, that they are not to be cast out by prayers and fasting, unless it be by their own fasting for want of provisions. I believe there is Scripture in what I have wrote, but I cannot adorn the margin with quotations, having a bad memory, and no Concordance at hand; besides no more time than to subscribe myself, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

DEAR JEMMY,

TO JAMES READ.

Saturday Morning, 17 August, 1745.

I have been reading your letter over again, and, since you desire an answer, I sit down to write you one; yet, as I write in the market, it will, I believe, be but a short one, though I may be long about it. I approve of your method of writing one's mind, when one is too warm to speak it with temper; but, being quite cool myself in this affair, I might as well speak as write, if I had an opportunity.

Are you an attorney by profession, and do you know no better how to choose a proper court in which to bring your action? Would you submit to the decision. of a husband, a cause between you and his wife? Don't you know that all wives are in the right? It B*

VOL. VII.

3

may be you don't, for you are yet but a young husband. But see, on this head, the learned Coke, that oracle of the law, in his chapter De Jur. Marit. Angl. I advise you not to bring it to trial; for, if you do, you will certainly be cast.

Frequent interruptions make it impossible for me to go through all your letter. I have only time to remind you of the saying of that excellent old philosopher, Socrates, that, in differences among friends, they that make the first concessions are the wisest; and to hint to you, that you are in danger of losing that honor in the present case, if you are not very speedy in your acknowledgments, which I persuade myself you will be, when you consider the sex of your adversary.

Your visits never had but one thing disagreeable in them, that is, they were always too short. I shall exceedingly regret the loss of them, unless you continue, as you have begun, to make it up to me by long letters. I am, dear Jemmy, with sincere love to our dearest Suky, your very affectionate friend and cousin,

B. FRANKLIN.

SIR,

TO CADWALLADER COLDEN.

Philadelphia, 1 October, 1747.

I send you herewith the "History of the Five Nations." You will perceive that Osborne, to puff up the book, has inserted the Charters, &c., of this province, all under the title of History of the Five Nations; which I think was not fair, but it is a common trick of booksellers.

Mr. James Read, to whom Mr. Osborne has sent a parcel of books by recommendation of Mr. Collinson, being engaged in business of another kind, talks of

declining to act in disposing of them, and perhaps may put them into my hands. If he should, I will endeavour to do Mr. Osborne justice in disposing of them to the best advantage, as also of any other parcel he may send me from your recommendation.

Mr. Armit is returned well from New England. As he has your power of attorney, and somewhat more leisure at present, than I have, I think to put your letter to Mr. Hughes into his hands, and desire him to manage the affair of your servant. I shall write a line besides to Hughes, that he would assist in obliging the servant to do you justice, which may be of some service, as he owns himself obliged to me, for recovering a servant for him, that had been gone above a twelvemonth. I am, Sir, &c.

The violent party spirit, that appears in all the votes, &c., of your Assembly, seems to me extremely unseasonable as well as unjust, and to threaten mischief not only to yourselves but to your neighbours. It begins to be plain that the French may reap great advantages from your divisions. God grant they may be as blind to their own interest, and as negligent of it, as the English are of theirs. It must be inconvenient to you to remove your family, but more so to you and them to live under continual apprehensions and alarms. I shall be glad to hear you are all in a place of safety.

Though "Plain Truth"* bore somewhat hard on both parties here, it has had the happiness not to give much offence to either. It has wonderfully spirited us up to defend ourselves and country, to which end great numbers are entering into an association, of which I send you a copy enclosed. We are likewise setting on foot a lottery to raise three thousand pounds for erecting a battery of cannon below the city. We have petitioned the Proprietor to send us some from England, and have ordered our correspondents to send us over a parcel, if the application to the Proprietor fails. But, lest by any accident they should miscarry, I am desired to write to you, and ask your opinion, whether, if our government should apply to Governor Clinton to borrow a few of your spare cannon, till we could be supplied, such application might probably meet with success. Pray excuse the effects of haste on this letter.

I am, Sir, with the greatest respect, your most obliged humble servant. B. FRANKLIN.

FROM R. PETERS TO JOHN AND RICHARD PENN.†

Origin of the Association for the Defence of the Province, and the Part taken by Franklin in forming it.

Philadelphia, 29 November, 1747.

HONORED PROPRIETARIES,

Abundance of stories have been told by sailors and others, who have been taken by French privateers and

* See this tract in Vol. III. pp. 1 et seq.

Richard Peters was at this time secretary of the proprietary government, and as such it was a part of his duty to acquaint the Proprietaries with every important transaction, which occurred in the province. It turned out, that the Proprietaries were not pleased with the course that