country, in order to make us cry out for help, and thereby furnish stronger pretence for maintaining a standing army among us. If we once lose our military spirit and supinely depend on an army of mercenaries for our defence, we shall become contemptible; despised both by friends and enemies, as neither our friendship nor our enmity will be deemed of any importance. As our country is not wealthy so as to afford much ready plunder, the temptation to a foreign invasion of us is the less, and I am persuaded that the name of a numerous well-disciplined militia would alone be almost sufficient to prevent any thoughts of attempting it. And what a glory would it be for us to send, on any trying occasion, ready and effectual aid to our mother country!

I have lately been among the clothing towns in Yorkshire, and by conversing with the manufacturers there, am more and more convinced of the natural impossibility there is that, considering our increase in America, England should be able much longer to supply us with clothing. Necessity, therefore, as well as prudence, will soon induce us to seek resources in our own industry, which becoming general among the people, encouraged by resolutions of your court, such as I have the pleasure of seeing in your late votes, will do wonders. Family manufactures will alone amount to a vast saving in the year; and a steady determination and custom of buying only of your own artificers wherever they can supply you, will soon make them more expert in working, so as to despatch more business, while constant employment enables them to afford their work still cheaper.

The lowness of provisions with us, compared with their daily rising price here, added to the freight, risk, and commissions on the manufactures of this country, must give great advantage to our workmen, and enable them in time to retain a great deal of money in the country, though still trade enough should remain between us and Britain to render our friendship of the greatest importance to this nation.

I was a subscriber to a set of plates published here, entitled The Senator's Remembrancer, a work encouraged by many members of both Houses. Having a spare copy, I beg your acceptance of it as a small mark of my respect, and send it by Captain Jarvis. Should it afford to your already well-furnished mind no useful hints in the management of public affairs, it may, however, be of service to some young friend-at least as copies of fair and elegant writing.

The letters I have received from my friends in Boston have lately come to hand, badly sealed, with no distinct impression, appearing as if they had been opened, and in a very bungling way closed again. I suspect this may be done by some prying persons that use the coffee-house here. I therefore mention it that you may, if you think fit, send yours under cover to some merchant of character who would forward them to me more safely.

With great and sincere respect, I have the honor of being, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

B. FRANKLIN.

[This note is on a slip of paper attached to the preceding letter.]

Whatever the prerogative may be, with regard to appointing the place of meeting for Parliaments and Assemblies, it should be used only for the good of the people. Where it is made an instrument of arbitrary power to enforce ministerial measures to the prejudice of the people's rights, such use of it has justly been condemned. It was one article of impeachment against a former evil minister,' that to work his ends (or the king's) he has caused the Parliament to sit in villibus et remotis partibus Regni, where few people, propter defectum hospitii et victualium, could attend, and by shifting that Assembly from place to place to enforce (the author's words) illos paucos qui remanebunt de communitate Regni, concedere Regi quamvis pessima.

TO THOMAS CUSHING

2

LONDON, 13 January, 1772.

SIR: I am now returned again to London from a journey of some months in Ireland and Scotland. Though my constitution and too great confinement to business during the winter seem to require the air

'Or charge against the king himself. I have not the book by me from whence this note was taken, but think it was some minister of Henry VI. Search the history.

2 This letter was intercepted by English cruisers, and in due time found its way to the English Public Record Office. It is endorsed: "Very remarkable and requires no commentary.”

A portion of it is presented in the fifth volume at page 288, as

and exercise of a long journey once a year, which I have now practised for more than twenty years past, yet I should not have been out so long this time but that I was well assured the Parliament would not meet till towards the end of January, before which meeting few of the principal people would be in town, and no business of importance likely to be agitated relating to America.

I have now before me your esteemed favors of July 9th, September 25th, and October 2d. In the first you mention that the General Assembly was still held out of its ancient and only convenient seat, the township of Boston, and by the latest papers from thence I see that it was prorogued again to meet in Cambridge, which I little wonder at when I recollect a question asked me by Lord Hillsborough in Ireland, viz., Whether I had heard from New England lately, since the General Court was returned to Boston? From this I concluded orders had been transmitted by his Lordship for that removal; perhaps such may have been sent, to be used discretionally. I think I have before mentioned to you one of the articles of impeachment brought against an evil administration here in former times, that the Parliament had been caused to sit in villibus et remotis partibus Regni, where few people, propter defectum hospitii et victualium, could attend, thereby to force illos paucos qui remanebunt de communitate Regni, concedere Regi

given by Sparks. Since this collection of letters was made, I have become indebted to Mr. B. F. Stevens, of London, for a copy of the entire letter, of which the unpublished part constitutes so large a portion that I have determined to give the letter here complete.-EDITOR.

VOL. XII. 21.

quamvis pessima. Lord Clarendon, too, was impeached for endeavoring to introduce arbitrary government into the colonies. Lord H. seems by the late instructions to have been treading in the paths that lead to the same unhappy situation, if the Parliament here should ever again feel for America. As there is something curious in our interview in Ireland, I must give you an account of it. I met with him accidentally at the Lord Lieutenant's, who happened to invite us to dine with a large company on the same day. He was surprisingly civil, and urged my fellow-traveller and me to call at his house in our intended journey northwards, where we might be sure of better accommodations than the inns could afford us. He pressed us so politely that it was not easy to refuse without apparent rudeness, as we must pass through his town of Hillsborough and by his door; and as it might afford an opportunity of saying something on American affairs, I concluded to comply with his invitation. His Lordship went home some time before we left Dublin. We called upon him, and were detained at his house four days, during which time he entertained us with great civility, and a particular attention to me that appeared the more extraordinary as I knew that just before I left London he had expressed himself concerning me in very angry terms, calling me a Republican, a factious, mischievous fellow, and the like. In our conversations he first showed himself a good Irishman, blaming England for its narrowness towards that country, in restraining its commerce, discouraging its woollen manu