mon composers of sermons can pretend to be; and therefore I wish you would never miss the prayer days; yet I do not mean you should despise sermons, even of the preachers you dislike, for the discourse is often much better than the man, as sweet and clear waters come through very dirty earth. I am the more particular on this head, as you seemed to express a little before I came away some inclination to leave our church, which I would not have you do.

For the rest, I would only recommend to you in my absence, to acquire those useful accomplishments, arithmetic and book-keeping. This you might do with ease, if you would resolve not to see company on the hours you set apart for those studies.

We expect to be at sea to-morrow, if this wind holds; after which I shall have no opportunity of writing to you, till I arrive (if it please God I do arrive) in England. I pray that his blessing may attend you, which is worth more than a thousand of mine, though they are never wanting. Give my love to your brother and sister,* as I cannot write to them, and remember me affectionately to the young ladies your friends, and to our good neighbours. I am, my dear child, your affectionate father,

B. FRANKLIN.

* William Franklin, governor of New Jersey, and his wife.

FROM RICHARD JACKSON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Con

Pennsylvania Affairs. Chief Justice Allen. sequences of a Change of Government doubtful.

DEAR SIR,

London, 18 November, 1764.

Nothing has given me, or can give me, more concern than the disturbances and disputes in your province. The mischiefs and dangers to Pennsylvania in particular, and to all America in general, are inconceivable to one, who has not been in England a good part of the past year. The effect that the foresight of these mischiefs and dangers had upon me, and the firm belief I entertained that Mr. Allen* was affected by the prospect as I was myself, made me open my mind more fully to him, than I should otherwise have done, and which I was the more readily induced to do, from the warmth with which he entered into some of my notions, and the candor with which he admitted others. At the same time that I was thoroughly convinced, that the interests of both parties were the same, and have a hundred times heard him confess, that one of them could not gain a victory over the other without a loss of much more than it was worth to themselves. By this I meant, that if government could go on under the Proprietary, it was much better for all parties than a change of government could well be expected to be in the long run, at the same time that a triumph, on the side of the Proprietary, if it could be hoped for, would infallibly in the end strip him of the powers of gov

* William Allen, chief justice of Pennsylvania, and one of the ablest supporters of the Proprietary interests, had been recently in England.

ernment; for that a man must know little of America, to suppose such a superiority would last long, and little of England, to hope that all the Proprietary's friends could preserve to him a possession, which he held by a tenure so unlike that of every other subject, except Lord Baltimore, and the defence of which was no man's common cause, when attacked and clogged by the efforts of a respectable party in Pennsylvania.*

To understand clearly what is here meant by the Proprietary, and, in other parts of this Correspondence, by the Proprietor, and Proprietors, it is necessary to revert to a few facts respecting the descendants of the original founder of Pennsylvania.

William Penn died in 1718. He was twice married; first to Gulielma Maria Springet; and next to Hannah Callowhill. By the first marriage he had a son and daughter, William and Lætitia; by the second, three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, and a daughter, Margaret. These children were all living at the time of his death. To his son by the first marriage he left his Irish estate, two of the manors in Pennsylvania, and some other property in the province. To the daughters were left certain city lots and other landed property. The sons by the second marriage inherited the Proprietary interest in Pennsylvania, which was divided into four parts, or shares, two being given to the eldest son, John, one to Thomas, and one to Richard. In 1746 John died without issue, and left his whole estate to Thomas, who thus became proprietor of three fourths. During Franklin's agency in England, therefore, Thomas Penn was the principal Proprietor, and the proprietary affairs mostly devolved on him, although official papers were signed by Thomas and Richard as joint proprietors.

Richard Penn and his descendants ran through a large part of their private estates in Pennsylvania before the revolution, that is, their portions of the manors, farms, and town lots. Thomas, who was a careful man of business, had then a large private property in the province; some of which still remains to his second son, Grenville Penn, now residing in England, and well known for his highly respectable character, learning, and talents. These private estates were not confiscated at the revolution. The family are supposed to have lost much, however, by the improper conduct of their agents, who, taking advantage of their fears and wants, purchased their lands at a very low price. The act of confiscation affected the general proprietary rights, that is, the quitrents and the right of purchase of the Indians. The proprietary tenths of the already surveyed lands were left to the family. As a compensation for their losses, the State of Pennsylvania gave them VOL. VII.

35

I confess I had formed a very advantageous opinion of Mr. Allen's honesty and good sense, and therefore was disposed to talk with him frankly on a subject, on which I thought all honest men of good sense must think alike. I trusted him, therefore, with my opinion on two or three points, which I was satisfied he could not use to the mischief of any one, without hurting himself and his friends, though he might make a use of them for the service of all parties, to the good part of whom I sincerely wished welfare and happiness. But my commission to him was to tell you my apprehensions, and not to make them public, because I never thought that could do service even to his own friends in the end. I particularly gave him this commission to you, in order to open again that correspondence, which I was of opinion was of so much consequence to the province to bring about. I am sorry I was mistaken, but think that the mischief will fall at last on those, who have rejected terms of accommodation.

That I did not mean that Mr. Allen should make my sentiments public, is evident. I did not even write them to any one else in the world, but yourself; and, if I glanced at any such in my letters to Mr. Galloway, or the Committee, it was at a distance; but I have to believe, too, that he has exaggerated my ex

one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling, which sum, if not an equivalent, was considered a very liberal grant. It was divided between the children of the two brothers in proportion to their shares in the proprietary interest. They also obtained from the English government a large indemnity as loyal refugees, besides a pension and certain sinecure offices for a definite time; so that, in regard to property, it is probable that the family were fully remunerated for their losses in Pennsylvania. All William Penn's children, except Lætitia and John, abandoned the religious tenets of their father; and hence, at the time of Franklin's agency, the Proprietors were not Quakers.

pressions. I confess I have thought, from the best judgment I could form of the opinion of people in power, that it was probable they might be glad to take a favorable opportunity of possessing the crown of these powers of government, without giving the people of the province any ground to triumph over those, who have pretended that they have been fighting the battle of the crown. I had reasons for this opinion, and therefore wished to defend the province from the dangers it threatened. I thought it my duty to do so; and therefore hinted to you, in more letters than one, what I apprehended. My apprehensions were chiefly on the head of purchase money to be paid to the Proprietary, and some privileges of the people of Pennsylvania; but my apprehensions never extended on the former head to one hundred thousand pounds, nor, on the latter, did I think that the crown would by violence and unconstitutionality strip the province of its privileges.

I do not write you this for public use. Perhaps it might serve some purpose to make it public, but I know you will make no use of it, that I do not consent to; and my design is only to open my heart to you on the subject, and that it should go no further.

Since I wrote the above, I received your favor acquainting me with the event of the election. I am heartily sorry for it, not for your sake, but for that of the province. I now look on the hopes of reconciliation as banished for ever, and am sure that the event will be the vesting the powers of government in the crown. My compliments to the governor of New Jersey. I took all the pains I could to get his judge confirmed, but there was some want of form in his appointment, that rendered it impracticable;