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I have too long postponed answering your obliging letter, a fault I will not attempt to excuse, but rather rely on your goodness to forgive it, if I am more punctual for the future.

I am obliged to you for the favorable sentiments you express of the pieces sent to you; though the volume relating to our Pennsylvania affairs was not written by me, nor any part of it, except the remarks on the Proprietor's estimate of his estate, and some of the inserted messages and reports of the Assembly, which I wrote when at home, as a member of committees appointed by the House for that service. The rest was by another hand.*

But though I am satisfied by what you say, that the Duke of Bedford was hearty in the scheme of the expedition, I am not so clear that others in the ad

ished by Lord Kames, and about which a great deal has been said and written. See Vol. II. p. 118.

* The treatise here mentioned is probably the HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION AND Government of PENNSYLVANIA, which is contained in the third volume of this work. The above letter to Mr. Hume has come to my hands since that volume passed through the press. Doubts were for a long time entertained, as to the authorship; but William Temple Franklin comments upon it largely, as having been written by his grandfather; Mr. Duane has expressed the same conviction, and included it in his edition of Franklin's writings; the London Monthly Review speaks of it very positively as having proceeded from his pen; and Dr. Franklin himself, referring to it incidentally in his autobiography, says it was "published" by him. These

ministration were equally in earnest in that matter. It is certain, that, after the Duke of Newcastle's first orders to raise troops in the colonies, and promise to send over commissions to the officers, with arms and clothing for the men, we never had another syllable from him for eighteen months; during all which time

testimonies, added to the style of the performance and the ability of its execution, left no reasonable ground for supposing that he did not write it. But the above declaration, made at the time, and with no other motive than that of correcting an erroneous impression, which Mr. Hume had received from reading the book, would seem at least to affect materially his title to the authorship, as that term is usually understood. And, since this fact was communicated without any injunction of secrecy, or any apparent wish for concealment, it is remarkable that it should never have been publicly known through some other channel, especially as Franklin was much censured by his political adversaries, on the supposition that he was the author.

The circumstances of the case, however, render it almost certain, that the REVIEW was written under his direction, and from materials communicated by him; and that he fully approved what it contained. Internal evidence also authorizes the belief, that he carefully revised it before it went to press, and that it received occasional touches from his pen. Farther than this it can hardly be presumed, consistently with his declaration to Mr. Hume, that his agency in the authorship extended. The book was designed for a particular object, that of promoting the claims of the Pernsylvania Assembly in their controversy with the Proprietaries, by correcting what he believed to be the false views of the public generally, in regard to the nature of the controversy and the complaints of the Assembly. He took pains to circulate copies of the work, as soon as it was published, both in England and America. Among his papers the following memorandum has been found. "July 12th, 1759. Sent to Mr. Hall five hundred REVIEWS; fifty to be delivered to the Assembly. Also sent to Mr. Parker twentyfive copies; and to Mr. Mecom twenty-five." Mr. Parker resided in New York, and Mr. Mecom in Boston.

It should moreover be observed, that a large part of the book is made up of the messages and reports of the Assembly, while Franklin was a member of that body; sometimes extracts being freely inserted, and at other times the substance in a more condensed form. Many of these messages and reports he acknowledges to have been written by himself; so that, whatever hand may have been employed to put the materials into shape, in reality the contents of the work may be regarded as more the fruit of his mind, than of any other writer's.

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the army lay idle at Albany for want of orders and necessaries; and it began to be thought at last, that, if an expedition had ever been intended, the first design and the orders given must, through the multiplicity of business here at home, have been quite forgotten.

I am not a little pleased to hear of your change of sentiments in some particulars relating to America; because I think it of importance to our general welfare, that the people of this nation should have right notions of us, and I know no one, that has it more in his power to rectify their notions than Mr. Hume. I have lately read with great pleasure, as I do every thing of yours, the excellent Essay on the Jealousy of Commerce. I think it cannot but have a good effect in promoting a certain interest, too little thought of by selfish man, and scarcely ever mentioned, so that we hardly have a name for it; I mean the interest of humanity, or common good of mankind. But I hope, particularly from that Essay, an abatement of the jealousy, that reigns here, of the commerce of the colonies, at least so far as such abatement may be reasonable.

I thank you for your friendly admonition relating to some unusual words in the pamphlet. It will be of service to me. The "pejorate," and the "colonize,” since they are not in common use here, I give up as bad; for certainly in writings intended for persua sion and for general information, one cannot be too clear; and every expression in the least obscure is a fault. The "unshakeable" too, though clear, I give up as rather low. The introducing new words, where

This was the expedition projected against Canada in the year 1746.

we are already possessed of old ones sufficiently expressive, I confess must be generally wrong, as it tends to change the language; yet, at the same time, I cannot but wish the usage of our tongue permitted making new words, when we want them, by composition of old ones whose meanings are already well understood. The German allows of it, and it is a common practice with their writers. Many of our present English words were originally so made; and many of the Latin words. In point of clearness, such compound words would have the advantage of any we can borrow from the ancient or from foreign languages. For instance, the word inaccessible, though long in use among us, is not yet, I dare say, so universally understood by our people, as the word uncomeatable would immediately be, which we are not allowed to write. But I hope with you, that we shall always in America make the best English of this Island our standard, and I believe it will be so. I assure you it often gives me pleasure to reflect, how greatly the audience (if I may so term it) of a good English writer will, in another century or two, be increased by the increase of English people in our colonies.

My son presents his respects with mine to you and Dr. Monro. We received your printed circular letter to the members of the Society,* and purpose some time next winter to send each of us a little philosophical essay. With the greatest esteem, I am, dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble serB. FRANKLIN.

vant,

• A Philosophical Society lately established at Edinburgh.

TO JOHN BASKERVILLE.*

On the Use of his Printing Types.

DEAR SIR,

Craven Street 1760.

Let me give you a pleasant instance of the prejudice some have entertained against your work. Soon after I returned, discoursing with a gentleman concerning the artists of Birmingham, he said you would be a means of blinding all the readers in the nation; for the strokes of your letters, being too thin and narrow, hurt the eye, and he could never read a line of them without pain. "I thought," said I, “you were going to complain of the gloss of the paper, which some object to." "No, no," said he, "I have heard that mentioned, but it is not that; it is in the form

John Baskerville, a celebrated printer, was born at Wolverley, in the county of Worcester, in the year 1706. He was heir to a small paternal estate, but he occupied himself for several years in teaching a school at Birmingham. Possessing a taste for painting, he entered into a lucrative branch of japanning, in which business he continued for life, and acquired by it a fortune, which made him independent. In the year 1750 he turned his thoughts towards an improvement in type-founding and printing. Several years were spent before he could produce such types as pleased him, and he expended six hundred pounds in the process. The first work he printed was a quarto edition of Virgil, in the year 1756. This was followed at different dates by a folio Bible, The Book of Common Prayer, Newton's edition of Milton, Juvenal and Persius, Horace, Addison's Works, and several of the other Latin classics and English authors. These publications were unsurpassed in their typographical beauty, and they place Baskerville among the most eminent of those, who have contributed to the improvement of the art of printing. The profits of the undertaking, however, were not in proportion to the enterprise and expense attending it; as will be seen by the following extract from a letter, which he wrote to Dr. Franklin, dated Birmingham, September 7th, 1767. Dr. Franklin was at that time on a visit to Paris.

"After having obtained the reputation of excelling in the most useful art known to mankind, of which I have your testimony, is it not

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