As to religion, we may surely be allowed to think and act entirely for ourselves, in all cases obeying God and conscience rather than man: but let us be thankful for the degree of liberty that we are allowed, though it be not all that we are justly entitled to; and let us not use any other means than reason and argument in order to better our condition. By this peaceable and steady conduct we shall at length convince those who will hear reason, that we are entitled to greater consideration; and doubt not but whatever is true and right will finally prevail, and be universally established. That any of your tutors, or any of the friends of this institution, wish to promote reformation in church or state by any other means than those of reason and argument, is a calumny utterly void of foundation or probability. But your conduct, dispersed as you will soon be in different parts of the country, will be the best means of refuting it. Let us leave the method of proceeding by riot and tumult to those persons to whose schemes such proceedings are congenial. Truth stands in no need of such support, and will always triumph when assailed by such weapons. In return, then, for the advantages which you have enjoyed in this institution, do it this service; and in recommending it, I trust you are doing substantial service to the cause of liberty and truth, and conferring a most important benefit on your country and on mankind. No. XXIV. ON DR. FRANKLIN AND MR. BURKE. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, Northumberland, Nov. 10, 1802. I HAVE just read in the Monthly Review,* that the late Mr. Pennant said of Dr. Franklin,† that, "living under the protection of preferable to violent reform. A man may be too wise to do good. His ideas may extend so far beyond the prejudices and comprehension of the day, as to make them appear ridiculous, or to render them impracticable." T. C. Mem. 8vo. pp. 362, 363. * Vol. XXXVI. p. 357. (P.) + In his "Journey from London to the Isle of Wight, 1801." The Reviewer says, "It contains some reflections on the great Dr. Franklin, which do no credit either to the information or liberality of the writer, and an attack on his philosophy, which the very note subjoined proves to be unfounded." The occasion for this "attack" was the "fixing conductors," as "determined" by "a Committee of the Royal Society," upon "the gunpowder magazines at Purfleet, on the principle advised by Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the same philosopher who, living," &c., as in Dr. Priestley's quotation. An accident occurred, " May 15, 1777," when, says the author, ""the inefficacy of his pointed conductors was evinced. Mr. B. Watson had very ably dissented against the method proposed by Dr. Franklin, but the evil genius of the wily philosopher stood victorious, and our capital nearly escaped subversion." Yet in a note to which the Reviewer refers, it appears from Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 232, that *** a reason was assigned for this disaster; for, on inspection, it was found to be owing to a want of construction in the metalic conductor." Such was the our mild government, he was secretly playing the incendiary, and too successfully inflaming the minds of our fellow-subjects in America, until that great explosion happened, which for ever disunited us from our once happy colonies." As it is in my power, as far as my testimony will be regarded, to refute this charge, I think it due to our friendship to do it. It is probable that no person now living was better acquainted with Dr. Franklin and his sentiments on all subjects of importance than myself, for several years before the American war. I think I knew him as well as one man can generally know another. At that time I spent the winters in London, in the family of the Marquis of Landsdown, and few days passed without my seeing more or less of Dr. Franklin; and the last day that he passed in England, having given out that he should depart the day before, we spent together, without any interruption, from morning until night.* 66 to Now he was so far from wishing for a rupture with the colonies, that he did more than most men would have done to prevent it.† His constant advice to his countrymen, he always said, was bear every thing from England, however unjust;" saying, that "it could not last long, as they would soon outgrow all their hardships." On this account Dr. Price, who then corresponded with some of the principal persons in America, said, he began to be very unpopular there. He always said, "If there must be a war, it will be a war of ten years, and I shall not live to see the end of it.” This I have heard him say many times. + It was at his request, enforced by that of Dr. Fothergil, that I wrote an anonymous pamphlet,§ calculated to shew the injustice and impolicy of a war with the Colonies, previous to the meeting of a new Parliament. As I then lived at Leeds, he corrected the press himself; and, to a passage in which I lamented the attempt to establish arbitrary power in so large a part of the British empire, he added the following clause, " To the imminent hazard of our most valuable commerce, and of that national strength, security, and felicity, which depend on union and on liberty."|| The unity of the British empire in all its parts was a favourite idea of his. He used to compare it to a beautiful China vase, which, if once broken, could never be put together again: and so great an admirer was he at that time of the British constitution, that he said he saw no inconvenience from its being extended over a great part of the globe. With these sentiments he left England;¶ but when, on his arrival in America, he found the war begun, and that there was no receding, no man entered more warmly into the interests of what he then considered as his country, in opposition to that of Great Britain. Three of his letters to me, one written power of political prejudice over such a generally fair writer as Mr. Pennant. Tantæne animis cælestibus iræ? * See Vol. I. Mem. 138, 139. "the + In this spirit was written a pamphlet entitled "The Interest of Great Britain considered with regard to her Colonies. London, printed. Boston, reprinted." On the title-page &B-n F- -n, LL.D.," is described as useful, and worthy author." See Vol. I. Mem. 139. See ibid. p. 498. § In 1774. See Vol. XXII. p. 483. immediately on his landing,* and published in the collection of his Miscellaneous Works,† will prove this. By many persons Dr. Franklin is considered as having been a cold-hearted man, so callous to every feeling of humanity, that the prospect of all the horrors of a civil war could not affect him. This was far from being the case. A great part of the day above-mentioned that we spent together, he was looking over a number of American newspapers, directing me what to extract from them for the English ones; and, in reading them, he was frequently not able to proceed for the tears literally running down his cheeks. To strangers he was cold and reserved; but where he was intimate, no man indulged more in pleasantry and good-humour. By this he was the delight of a club, to which he alludes in one of the letters above referred to,§ called the Whig-Club, that met at the London Coffee-house, of which Dr. Price, Dr. Kippis, Mr. John Lee, and others of the same stamp, were members. Hoping that this vindication of Dr. Franklin will give pleasure to many of your readers, I shall proceed to relate some particulars relating to his behaviour when Lord Loughborough, then Mr. Wedderburn, pronounced his violent invective against him at the Privy Council, on his presenting the complaints of the province of Massachusetts (I think it was) against their governor. Some of the particulars may be thought amusing. On the morning of the day¶ on which the cause was to be heard, I met Mr. Burke in Parliament Street, accompanied by Dr. Douglas, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle; and after introducing us to each other, as men of letters, he asked me whither I was going. I said, I could tell him whither I wished to go. He then asking me where that was. I said to the privy council, but that I was afraid I could not get admission. He then desired me to go along with him. Accordingly I did; but when we got to the anti-room, we found it quite filled with persons as desirous of getting admission as ourselves. Seeing this, I said, we should never get through the crowd. He said, "Give me your arm ;" and, locking it fast in his, he soon made his way to the door of the privy council. I then said, Mr. Burke, you are an excellent leader; he replied, "I wish other persons thought so too." After waiting a short time, the door of the privy council opened, and we entered the first; when Mr. Burke took his stand behind the * 66 May 16, 1775." See "The Life of Benjamin Franklin," (1826,) p. 205. ↑ Pp. 365, 552, 555. (P.) See "The Life of Benjamin Franklin,” (1826,) pp. 203-216. ↑ See Vol. I. Mem 138. Dated" Oct. 3, 1775," in which he says, "I am to set out to-morrow for the camp, and having but just heard of this opportunity, can only write a line to say that I am well and hearty. Tell our dear good friend, Dr. Price, who sometimes has his doubts and despondencies about our firmness, that America is determined and unanimous, a very few Tories and placemen excepted, who will probably soon export themselves. * "My respects to * and to the club of honest Whigs at * See "Life of Franklin," pp. 217, 218. * * * At length Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Earl Rosslyn. Such is "the man whom the king delighteth to honour." first chair next to the president, and I behind that next to his. When the business was opened, it was sufficiently evident, from the speech of Mr. Wedderburn, who was counsel for the governor, that the real object of the court was to insult Dr. Franklin. All this time he stood in a corner of the room, not far from me, without the least apparent emotion. Mr. Dunning, who was the leading counsel on the part of the colony, was so hoarse that he could hardly make himself heard; and Mr. Lee, who was the second, spoke but feebly in reply; so that Mr. Wedderburn had a complete triumph. At the sallies of his sarcastic wit,* all the members of the council, the president himself (Lord Gower) not excepted, frequently laughed outright. No person belonging to the council behaved with decent gravity, except Lord North, who, coming late, took his stand behind the chair opposite to me. When the business was over, Dr. Franklin, in going out, took me by the hand in a manner that indicated some feeling. I soon followed him, and, going through the anti-room, saw Mr. Wedderburn there surrounded with a circle of his friends and admirers. Being known to him, he stepped forward as if to speak to me; but I turned aside, and made what haste I could out of the place. The next morning I breakfasted with the doctor, when he said, he had never before been so sensible of the power of a good conscience; for that if he had not considered the thing for which he had been so much insulted as one of the best actions of his life, and what he should certainly do again in the same circumstances, he could not have supported it. He was accused of clandestinely procuring certain letters,† containing complaints against the governor, and sending them to America, with a view to excite their animosity against him, and thus to embroil the two countries. But he assured me that he did not even know that such letters existed, until they were brought to him as agent for the colony, in order to be sent to his constituents; and the cover of letters, on which the direction had been written, being lost, he only guessed at the person to whom they were addressed, by the contents. That Dr. Franklin, notwithstanding he did not shew it at the time, was much impressed by the business of the privy council, * See "Life of Franklin," p. 174. + Written in 1768 and 1769. In 1773, they appeared at Boston, in a pamphlet entitled "Copy of Letters sent to Great Britain, by his Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, the Hon. Andrew Oliver, and several other Persons, born and educated among us; which original Letters have been returned to America, and laid before the Honourable House of Representatives of this Province. In which (notwithstanding his Excellency's Declaration to the House, that the Tendency and Design of them was not to subvert the Constitution, but rather to preserve it entire,) the judicious Reader will discover the fatal Source of the Confusion and Bloodshed in which this Province especially has been involved, and which threatened total Destruction to the Liberties of all America." See "Gordon's American Revolution," (1788,) I. 328-330, 349. A friend has kindly informed me that a late publication in America explains this mysterious transaction entirely to the credit of Dr. Franklin's character, as I expect to shew more at large among the illustrations of Dr. Priestley's Memoirs. See Vol. I. Mem. 138. appeared from this circumstance:when he attended there, he was dressed in a suit of Manchester velvet; and Silas Dean told me, that when they met at Paris, to sign the treaty between France and America, he purposely put on that suit.* Hoping that this communication will be of some service to the memory of Dr. Franklin, and gratify his friends, I am, Sir, yours, &c. J. PRIESTLEY. Northumberland, February 1,† 1804. HAVING, in my defence of Dr. Franklin, published in the Monthly Magazine for February 1803, mentioned a circumstance which implied that at that time there subsisted a considerable degree of intimacy between me and Mr. Burke, and several persons will wish to know how that intimacy came to terminate, and what could be the cause of the inveteracy with which, some years before his death, he took every opportunity of treating me, especially by studiously introducing my name, in a manner calculated to excite the strongest resentment, in his speeches in the House of Commons, to which he knew it was not in my power to make any reply, I have no objection to giving the best account that I can of it. It shall be distinct, fair, and candid. We were first introduced to each other by our common friend, Mr. John Lee, while I lived at Leeds, and we had then no difference of opinion whatever, that I knew of, on any subject of politics, except that he thought the power of the crown would be checked in the best manner by increasing the influence of the great Whig families in the country; while I was of opinion that the same end which we both aimed at would be most effectually secured by a more equal representation of the Commons in Parliament. But this subject was never the occasion of any discussion or debate between us, except at one time, in the presence of Mr. Lee, at Mr. Burke's table; and this was occasioned by a recent publication of his, on the cause of the discontents which then prevailed very generally in the kingdom; a pamphlet of which neither Mr. Lee nor myself concealed our disapprobation, thinking the principles of it much too aristrocatical. § When the American war broke out, this difference of opinion did not seem to be thought of by either of us. We had but one opinion, and one wish, on that subject; and this was the same with all who were classed by us among the friends of the liberty of England. On the probable approach of that war, but a few years before it See "Life of Dr. Franklin," p. 175. † On the 6th Dr. Priestley died. "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents," ed. 3, 1770. S "Whilst the obvious intent of this pernicious work is to expose the dangerous designs of a profligate junto of courtiers, supported by the mere authority of the crown against the liberties of the constitution, it likewise endeavours to mislead the people on the subject of the more complicated and specious, though no less dangerous, manoeuvres of aristocratic faction and party, founded on, and supported by, the corrupt principle of self-interest; and also to guard against the possible consequence of an effectual reformation in the vitiated parts of our constitution and government." See " Observations, by Catharine Macaulay,” (1770,) p. 7. |