sick, and, being now in my sixty-seventh year, I begin to apprehend some infirmity of age may attack me, and make my return impracticable. I have, also, some important affairs to settle before my death, a period I ought now to think cannot be far distant. I see here no disposition in Parliament to meddle farther in colony affairs for the present, either to lay more duties or to repeal any; and I think, though I were to return again, I may be absent from here a year without any prejudice to the business I am engaged in, though it is not probable, that, being once at home, I should ever again see England. I have indeed so many good kind friends here, that I could spend the remainder of my life among them with great pleasure, if it were not for my American connexions, and the indelible affection I retain for that dear country, from which I have so long been in a state of exile. My love to Betsey. I am ever your affectionate father,

B. FRANKLIN.

END OF VOL. VII.