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a war is an inducement with many, to cry out for war upon all occasions, and to oppose every proposition of peace. Hence the constant increase of the national debt, and the absolute improbability of its ever being discharged.

4. Respecting the amount and certainty of income, and solidity of security; the whole thirteen states of America are engaged for the payment of every debt contracted by the congress, and the debt to be contracted by the present war is the only debt they will have to pay; all, or nearly all, the former debts of particular colonies being already discharged. Whereas England will have to pay not only the enormous debt this war must occasion, but all their vast preceding debt, or the inte

itself by prizes made upon the British commerce, more than ever it did by any commerce of its own, under the restraints of a Britsh monopoly, and the diminution of its revenues, and of course less able to discharge the present indiscreet increase of its expenses.

3. Respecting frugality; the manner of living in America is more simple and less expensive than that in England: plain tables, plain clothing, and plain furniture in houses prevail, with few carriages of pleasure; there, an expensive appearance hurts credit, and is avoided: in England, it is often assumed to guin credit, and continued to ruin. Respecting public affairs, the difference is still greater. In England, the salaries of officers, and emoluments of office are enormous. The king has a million sterling per annum, and yet cannot maintain his family free of debt: secretaries of state, lords of treasury, admiralty, &c. have vast appointments: an auditor of the exchequer has sixpence in the pound, or a fortieth part of all the public money expend-rest of it, and while America is enriching ed by the nation; so that when a war costs forty millions, one million is paid to him: an inspector of the mint, in the last new coinage, received as his fee 65,000l. sterling per annum; to all which rewards no service these gentlemen can render the public is by any means equivalent. All this is paid by the peo- 5. Respecting prospects of greater future ple, who are oppressed by taxes so occasion- ability, Britain has none such. Her islands ed, and thereby rendered less able to contri- are circumscribed by the ocean; and exceptbute to the payment of necessary national ing a few parks or forests, she has no new debts. In America, salaries, where indispensa- land to cultivate, and cannot therefore extend ble, are extremely low; but much of the public improvements. Her numbers too, instead of business is done gratis. The honour of serving increasing from increased subsistence, are the public ably and faithfully is deemed suffi- continually diminishing from growing luxury, cient. Public spirit really exists there, and and the increasing difficulties of maintaining has great effects. In England it is universally families, which of course discourage early deemed a nonentity, and whoever pretends to marriages. Thus she will have fewer people it is laughed at as a fool, or suspected as a to assist in paying her debts, and that dimiknave. The committees of congress which nishing number will be poorer. America, on form the board of war, the board of treasury, the contrary, has, besides her lands already culthe board of foreign affairs, the naval board, tivated, a vast territory yet to be cultivated; that for accounts, &c. all attend the business which, being cultivated continually increases of their respective functions, without any sa- in value with the increase of people; and the lary or emolument whatever, though they people, who double themselves by a natural spend in it much more of their time than any propagation every twenty-five years, will lord of treasury or admiralty in England can double yet faster, by the accession of stran spare from his amusements. A British mi-gers, as long as lands are to be had for new nister lately computed, that the whole expense of the Americans, in their civil government over three millions of people amounted to but 70,000l. sterling, and drew from thence a conclusion, that they ought to be taxed, until their expense was equal in proportion to that 6. Respecting prudence in general affairs, which it costs Britain to govern eight mil- and the advantages to be expected from the lions. He had no idea of a contrary conclu-loan desired; the Americans are cultivators sion, that if three millions may be well go- of land; those engaged in fishery and comverned for 70,000l. eight millions may be as merce are few, compared with the others. well governed for three times that sum, and They have ever conducted their several gothat therefore the expense of his own govern-vernments with wisdom, avoiding wars, and ment should be diminished. In that corrupt- vain expensive projects, delighting only in ed nation no man is ashamed of being concern- their peaceable occupations, which must, ed in lucrative government jobs, in which the considering the extent of their uncultivated public money is egregiously misapplied and territory, find them employment still for ages. squandered, the treasury pillaged, and more Whereas England, ever unquiet, ambitious, numerous and heavy taxes accumulated, to avaricious, imprudent, and quarrelsome, is half the great oppression of the people. But the of the time engaged in war, always at an exprospect of a greater number of such jobs by pense infinitely greater than the advantages

families; so that every twenty years there will be a double number of inhabitants obliged to discharge the public debts; and those inhabitants, being more opulent, may pay their shares with greater ease.

to be obtained by it, if successful. Thus they | tish merchants would operate to prevent that made war against Spain in 1739, for a claim distress, intended to be brought upon Britain, of about 95,000l. (scarce a groat for each in- by our stoppage of commerce with her; for dividual of the nation) and spent forty millions the merchants receiving this money, and no sterling in the war, and the lives of fifty thou-orders with it for farther supplies, would eisand men; and finally made peace without ther lay it out in public funds, or in employobtaining satisfaction for the sum claimed. Indeed, there is scarce a nation in Europe, against which she has not made war on some frivolous pretext or other, and thereby imprudently accumulated a debt, that has brought her on the verge of bankruptcy. But the most indiscreet of all her wars, is the present against America, with whom she might, for ages, have preserved her profitable connexion only by a just and equitable conduct. She is now acting like a mad shop-keeper, who, by beating those that pass his doors, attempts to make them come in and be his customers. America cannot submit to such treatment, without being first ruined, and, being ruined, her custom will be worth nothing. England, to effect this, is increasing her debt, and irretrievably ruining herself. America, on the other hand, aims only to establish her liberty, and that freedom of commerce which will be advantageous to all Europe; and by abolishing that monopoly which she laboured under she will profit infinitely more than enough to repay any debt which she may contract to accomplish it.

ing manufacturers to accumulate goods for a future hungry market in America upon an expected accommodation, by which means the funds would be kept up and the manufacturers prevented from murmuring. But against this it was alleged, that injuries from ministers should not be revenged on merchants; that the credit was in consequence of private contracts, made in confidence of good faith; that these ought to be held sacred, and faithfully complied with; for that, whatever public utility might be supposed to arise from a breach of private faith, it was unjust, and would in the end be found unwise-honesty being in truth the best policy. On this principle the proposition was universally rejected; and though the English prosecuted the war with unexampled barbarity, burning our defenceless towns in the midst of winter, and arming savages against us; the debt was punctually paid; and the merchants of London have testified to the parliament, and will testify to all the world, that from their experience in dealing with us they had, before the war, no apprehension of our unfairness: and 7. Respecting character in the honest pay- that since the war they have been convinced, ment of debts; the punctuality with which that their good opinion of us was well founded. America has discharged her public debts was England, on the contrary, an old, corrupt goshown under the first head. And the gene-vernment, extravagant, and profligate nation, ral good disposition of the people to such sees herself deep in debt, which she is in no punctuality has been manifested in their faith-condition to pay; and yet is madly, and disful payment of private debts to England, since honestly running deeper, without any possithe commencement of this war. There were bility of discharging her debt, but by a public not wanting some politicians [in America,] bankruptcy. who proposed stopping that payment, until peace should be restored, alleging, that in the usual course of commerce, and of the credit given, there was always a debt existing equal to the trade of eighteen months: that the trade amounting to five millions sterling per annum, the debt must be seven millions and a half; that this sum paid to the Bri

It appears, therefore, from the general industry, frugality, ability, prudence, and virtue of America, that she is a much safer debtor than Britain ;-to say nothing of the satisfaction generous minds must have in reflecting, that by loans to America they are opposing tyranny, and aiding the cause of liberty, which is the cause of all mankind.

PHILOSOPHICAL.

ESSAYS AND CORRESPONDENCE.

ELECTRICITY.

To Peter Collinson, Esq. F. R. S. London.

PHILADELPHIA, March 28, 1747.

YOUR kind present of an electric tube, with directions for using it, has put several of us* on making electrical experiments, in which we have observed some particular phenomena that we look upon to be new. I shall therefore communicate them to you in my next, though possibly they may not be new to you, as among the numbers daily employed in those experiments on your side the water, it is probable some one or other has hit on the same observations. For my own part, I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done; for what with making experiments when I can be alone, and repeating them to my friends and acquaintance, who, from the novelty of the thing, come continually in crowds to see them, I have, during some months past, had little leisure for any thing else.-I am, &c. B. FRANKLIN.

cal Machine.

To the same.

PHILADELPHIA, July 11, 1747.

Place an iron shot of three or four inches

diameter on the mouth of a clean dry glass bottle. By a fine silken thread from the ceiling, right over the mouth of the bottle, suspend a small cork-ball, about the bigness of a marble; the thread of such a length, side of the shot. Electrify the shot, and the as that the cork-ball may rest against the ball will be repelled to the distance of four or five inches, more or less, according to the quantity of electricity.-When in this state, if you present to the shot the point of inches distance, the repellency is instantly dea long, slender, sharp bodkin, at six or eight stroyed, and the cork flies to the shot. A blunt body must be brought within an inch, and draw a spark to produce the same effect. To prove that the electrical fire is drawn off by the point, if you take the blade of the bodkin out of the wooden handle, and fix it in a stick of sealing-wax, and then present it at the distance aforesaid, or if you bring it very near, no such effect follows; but sliding one finger along the wax till you touch the blade, and the ball flies to the shot immediately.If you present the point in the dark, you will see, sometimes at a foot distance and more, a light gather upon it, like that of a fire-fly, or

Wonderful effect of points.-Positive and negative Electricity.-Electrical Kiss.-Counterfeit Spider-Simple and commodious electri-glow worm; the less sharp the point, the nearer you must bring it to observe the light; and at whatever distance you see the light, you may draw off the electrical fire, and destroy the repellency.-If a cork ball so suspended be repelled by the tube, and a point rable distance, it is surprising to see how sudbe presented quick to it, though at a considedenly it flies back to the tube. Points of wood will do near as well as those of iron, provided the wood is not dry; for perfectly dry wood will no more conduct electricity than sealing wax.

upon

In my last I informed you that, in pursuing our electrical inquiries, we had observed some particular phenomena, which we looked to be new, and of which I promised to give you some account, though I apprehended they might not possibly be new to you, as so many hands are daily employed in electrical experiments on your side the water, some or other of which would probably hit on the same ob

servations.

The first is the wonderful effect of pointed bodies, both in drawing off and throwing off the electrical fire. For example.

*The Library Company, an institution of the author's, founded in 1730. To which company the present was made.

To show that points will throw off* as well

* This power of points to throw off the electrical fire, was first communicated to me by my ingenious friend Mr. Thomas Hopkinson, since deceased, whose virtues and integrity, in every situation of life, public and private, will ever make his memory dear to those who knew him, and knew how to value him. 244

as draw off the electrical fire; lay a long sharp needle upon the shot, and you cannot electrise the shot so as to make it repel the cork-ball.-Or fix a needle to the end of a suspended gun-barrel, or iron-rod, so as to point beyond it like a little bayonet;* and while it remains there, the gun-barrel, or rod, cannot by applying the tube to the other end be electrised so as to give a spark, the fire continually running out silently at the point. In the dark you may see it make the same appearence as it does in the case before-mentioned.

freely on fine wire axles. Also by little wheels of the same matter, but formed like water-wheels. Of the disposition and application of which wheels, and the various phenomena resulting, I could, if I had time, fill you a sheet.* The impossibility of electrising one's self (though standing on wax) by rubbing the tube, and drawing the fire from it; and the manner of doing it, by passing the tube near a person or thing standing on the floor, &c. had also occurred to us some months before Mr. Watson's ingenious Sequel came to hand, and these were some of the new things I intended to have communicated to you. But now I need only mention some particulars not hinted in that piece, with our reasonings thereupon: though perhaps the latter might well enough be spared.

The repellency between the cork-ball and the shot is likewise destroyed. 1. By sifting fine sand on it; this does it gradually. 2. By breathing on it. 3. By making a smoke about it from burning wood. 4. By candle-light, even though the candle is at a foot distance: these do it suddenly.-The light of a bright coal from a wood fire, and the light of a red hot iron do it likewise; but not at so great a distance. Smoke from dry rosin dropt on hot iron, does not destroy the repellency; but is attracted by both shot and cork ball, forming proportionable atmospheres round them, mak- 2. But if the persons on wax touch one ing them look beautifully, somewhat like some another during the exciting of the tube, neiof the figures in Burnet's or Whiston's The-ther of them will appear to be electrised. ory of the Earth.

N. B. This experiment should be made in a closet, where the air is very still, or it will be apt to fail.

1. A person standing on wax, and rubbing the tube, and another person on wax drawing the fire, they will both of them (provided they do not stand so as to touch one another) appear to be electrised, to a person standing on the floor; that is, he will perceive a spark on approaching each of them with his knuckle.

3. If they touch one another after exciting the tube, and drawing the fire as aforesaid, there will be a stronger spark between them than was between either of them and the son on the floor.

per

The light of the sun thrown strongly on both cork and shot by a looking-glass for a long time together, does not impair the re-discover any electricity. pellency in the least. This difference between fire-light and sun-light is another thing that seems new and extraordinary to us.‡

4. After such strong spark, neither of them

These appearances we attempt to account for thus: we suppose, as aforesaid, that electrical fire is a common element, of which We had for some time been of opinion, that every one of the three persons abovementhe electrical fire was not created by friction, tioned has his equal share, before any operabut collected, being really an element diffus-tion is begun with the tube. A, who stands ed among, and attracted by other matter, particularly by water and metals. We had even discovered and demonstrated its afflux to the electrical sphere, as well as its efflux, by means of little light windmill wheels made of stiff paper vanes, fixed obliquely, and turning

*This was Mr. Hopkinson's experiment, made with an expectation of drawing a more sharp and powerful spark from the point, as from a kind of focus, and he was surprised to find little or none.

We suppose every particle of sand, moisture, or smoke, being first attracted and then repelled, carries off with it a portion of the electrical fire; but that the same still subsists in those particles, till they communicate it to something else, and that it is never really destroyed. So when water is thrown on common fire, we do not imagine that the element is thereby de stroyed or annihilated, but only dispersed, each particle of water carrying off in vapour its portion of the fire,

which it had attracted and attached to itself.

This different effect probably did not arise from any difference in the light, but rather from the parti. cles separated from the candle, being first attracted and then repelled, carrying off the electric matter with them; and from the rarefying of the air, between the glowing coal or red hot iron, and the electrised shot, through which rarefied air the electric fluid could more readily pass.

on wax, and rubs the tube, collects the electrical fire from himself into the glass; and his communication with the common stock being cut off by the wax, his body is not again immediately supplied. B, (who stands on wax likewise) passing his knuckle along near the tube, receives the fire which was collected by the glass from A; and his communication with the common stock being likewise cut off, he retains the additional quantity received.-To C, standing on the floor, both appear to be electrised: for he having only the middle quantity of electrical fire, receives a spark upon approaching B, who has an over quantity; but gives one to A, who has an under quantity. If A and B approach to touch each other, the spark is stronger, because the difference between them is greater; after

*These experiments with the wheels, were made and communicated to me by my worthy and ingenious friend Mr Philip Syng; but we afterwards discovered that the motion of those wheels was not owing to any afflux or efflux of the electric fluid, but to various circumstances of attraction and repulsion. 1750.

C and D, standing also on wax, and joining hands with A and B, salute or shake hands. We suspend by find silk thread a counterfeit spider, made of a small piece of burnt cork, with legs of linen thread, and a grain or two of lead stuck in him, to give him more weight; upon the table, over which he hangs, we

such touch there is no spark between either | there will be a small spark; but when their of them and C, because the electrical fire in lips approach, they will be struck and shockall is reduced to the original equality. If they ed; the same if another gentleman and lady, touch while electrising, the equality is never destroyed, the fire only circulating. Hence have arisen some new terms among us; we say B, (and bodies like circumstanced) is electrised positively; A, negatively. Or rather, B is electrised plus; A, minus. And we daily in our experiments electrise bodies plus or minus, as we think proper.-To elec-stick a wire upright, as high as the phial and trise plus or minus, no more needs to be known than this, that the parts of the tube or sphere that are rubbed, do, in the instant of the friction, attract the electrical fire, and therefore take it from the thing rubbing: the same parts immediately, as the friction upon them ceases, are disposed to give the fire they have received, to any body that has less. Thus you may circulate it, as Mr. Watson has shown; you may also accumulate or subtract it, upon, or from any body, as you connect that body with the rubber or with the receiver, the communication with the common stock being cut off. We think that ingenious gentleman was deceived when he imagined (in his Sequel) that the electrical fire came down the wire from the ceiling to the gunbarrel, thence to the sphere, and so electrised the machine and the man turning the wheel, &c. We suppose it was driven off, and not brought on through that wire; and that the machine and man, &c. were electrised minus; i. e. had less electrical fire in them than things

in common.

As the vessel is just upon sailing, I cannot give you so large an account of American electricity as I intended: I shall only mention a few particulars more.-We find granulated lead better to fill the phial with, than water, being easily warmed, and keeping warm and dry in damp air.-We fire spirits with the wire of the phial.-We light candles just blown out, by drawing a spark among the smoke between the wire and snuffers. We represent lightning, by passing the wire in the dark, over a china plate that has gilt flowers, or applying it to gilt frames of looking glasses, &c.-We electrise a person twenty or more times running, with a touch of the finger on the wire, thus: he stands on wax; give him the electrised bottle in his hand; touch the wire with your finger, and then touch his hand or face; there are sparks every time.*-We increase the force of the electrical kiss vastly, thus: let A and B stand on wax; or A on wax, and B on the floor; give one of them the electrised phial in hand; let the other take hold of the wire;

*By taking a spark from the wire, the electricity within the bottle is diminished; the outside of the bottle then draws some from the person holding_it, and leaves him in the negative state. Then when his hand or face is touched, an equal quantity is restored to him from the person touching.

wire, four or five inches from the spider; then we animate him, by setting the electrified phial at the same distance on the other side of him; he will immediately fly to the wire of the phial, bend his legs in touching it, then spring off, and fly to the wire on the table, thence again to the wire of the phial, playing with his legs against both, in a very entertaining manner, appearing perfectly alive to persons unacquainted: he will continue this motion an hour or more in dry weather. We electrify, upon wax in the dark, a book that has a double line of gold round upon the covers, and then apply a knuckle to the gilding; the fire appears every where upon the gold like a flash of lightning; not upon the leather, nor, if you touch the leather instead of the gold. We rub our tubes with buckskin, and observe always to keep the same side to the tube, and never to sully the tube by handling; thus they work readily and easily, without the least fatigue, especially if kept in tight pasteboard cases, lined with flannel, and sitting close to the tube.* This I mention, because the European papers on electricity frequently speak of rubbing the tube as a fatiguing exercise. Our spheres are fixed on iron axles, which pass through them. At one end of the axis there is a small handle, with which you turn the sphere like a common grindstone. This we find very commodious, as the machine takes up but little room, is portable, and may be inclosed in a tight box, when not in use. It is true, the sphere does not turn so swift as when the great wheel is used: but swiftness we think of little importance, since a few turns will charge the phial, &c. sufficiently.*

B. FRANKLIN.

To Peter Collinson, London. Observations on the Leyden Bottle, with Experiments proving the different electrical State of its different Surfaces.

PHILADELPHIA, Sept.1, 1747.

THE necessary trouble of copying long letters, which perhaps, when they come to your * Our tubes are made here of green glass, 27 or 30 inches long, as big as can be grasped. †This simple easily-made machine was a contrivance of Mr. Syng's.

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