the cushion lay on the council table before him; his station was between the seats of two of the members, on the side of the right hand of the Lord President. I would not for double the greatest fee the orator could on that occasion have received, been in the place of that cushion; the ear was stunned at every blow . . . the table groaned under the assault." Dr. Priestley said: "At the sallies of his sarcastic wit, all the members of the Council, the President himself 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." Burke and Shelburne were outraged by the violence and vulgarity of the attack: the former spoke of it as "beyond all bounds and decency," and the latter wrote to Lord Chatham of Wedderburn's "most scurrilous invective" and of "the indecency of his behaviour."

In leaving the room Franklin pressed Priestley's hand in a way that indicated much feeling. The next day (Sunday) they breakfasted together in Craven Street, when Franklin remarked upon the fortifying 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."

On Monday morning Franklin received a letter from the secretary of the post-office, laconically informing him that the postmaster-general had "found it necessary" to dismiss him from the office of deputy postmaster-general in America. The expression, said Franklin, was well chosen, “for in truth they were under a necessity of doing it; it was not their own inclination."

However we may poise the cause in the scales of history, and however we may decide upon the merits of Franklin's part in the affair of the letters, it must always be remembered as the critical incident which converted Franklin into a stubborn opponent of the British government, and changed the American sentiment toward him from lukewarm admiration to inflamed respect, enthusiasm, and affection.

It was the one cherished hatred of his life, and how deep. the poisoned shaft had sunk into his soul we may perhaps infer from the well-authenticated story that four years later, when the treaty of alliance with France was signed, Franklin dressed himself for that day's historic achievement in the same Manchester cloak of velvet which he last wore when he stood under the pitiless storm of Wedderburn's vituperation.'

It has often been said that the story of the cloak is a legend, and that it has no foundation in fact. The only error is in supposing that the suit was worn when the Treaty of Peace was signed. It was first told by Priestley, and verified by Dr. Bancroft. The following is the version given by the latter: "It had been intended that these treaties [commerce and eventual alliance with France] should be signed on the evening of Thursday, the 5th of February; and when Dr. Franklin had dressed himself for the day, I observed that he wore the suit in question; which I thought the more remarkable, as it had been laid aside for many months. This I noticed to Mr. Deane; and soon after, when a messen

1 Horace Walpole was the author of a once famous epigram upon Wedderburn and Franklin:

"Sarcastic Sawney, swol'n with spite and prate

On silent Franklin poured his venal hate.

The calm philosopher, without reply,
Withdrew, and gave his country liberty."

ger came from Versailles, with a letter from Mr. Gerard the French plenipotentiary, stating that he was so unwell, from a cold, that he wished to defer coming to Paris to sign the treaties, until the next evening, I said to Mr. Deane, ‘Let us see whether the Doctor will wear the same suit of clothes to-morrow; if he does, I shall suspect that he is influenced by a recollection of the treatment which he received at the Cockpit.' The morrow came, and the same clothes were again worn, and the treaties signed. After which, these clothes were laid aside, and, so far as my knowledge extends, never worn afterwards. I once intimated to Dr. Franklin the suspicion, which his wearing these clothes on that occasion had excited in my mind, when he smiled, without telling me whether it was well or ill founded. I have heard him sometimes say, that he was not insensible to injuries, but that he never put himself to any trouble or inconvenience to retaliate." 1

CHAPTER VI

PLANS OF CONCILIATION

THE tone of Franklin's comment upon English politics is noticeably changed after the scene in the Cockpit. He wrote to Joseph Galloway, deploring any approach to a closer union between the countries. He drew vivid contrasts be

1 In the diary of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the manuscript of which is in the possession of the Library Company of Philadelphia, occurs the report of a conversation between Silas Deane and Franklin as they went together to the signing of the treaty of alliance. "Why do you wear that old coat to-day?" asked Deane. "To give it its revenge!" replied Franklin.

tween the "extreme corruption prevalent among all orders of men in the old rotten state" of England, and the "glorious public virtue so predominant in the rising country" of America. He expressed a fear that England would drag the colonies after them in all the plundering wars which their desperate circumstances, injustice, and rapacity might prompt them to undertake. He wrote: "Here numberless and needless places, enormous salaries, pensions, perquisites, bribes, groundless quarrels, foolish expeditions, false accounts or no accounts, contracts and jobs, devour all revenue, and produce continual necessity in the midst of natural plenty. I apprehend, therefore, that to unite us intimately will only be to corrupt and poison us also. It seems like Mezentius's coupling and binding together the dead and the living,— "Tormenti genus, et sanie taboque fluentes,

Complexu in misero, longâ sic morte necabat.'

"However, I would try anything, and bear anything that can be borne with safety to our just liberties, rather than engage in a war with such relations, unless compelled to it by dire necessity in our own defence." 1

Josiah Quincy dined with Franklin, March 3, 1775, and had three hours' conversation with him, the substance of which he relates in his Diary. Franklin dissuaded from France and Spain and was emphatic that no step of great consequence, unless upon a sudden emergency, should be taken without advice of the Continental Congress. "Explicitly, and in so many words, said that New England alone could hold out for ages against this country, and if they were firm and united, in seven years would conquer them. Said he had the best intelligence that the manufacturers were 1 To Joseph Galloway, February 25, 1775.

VOL. X-T

feeling bitterly, and loudly complaining of the loss of the American trade. Let your adherence be to the non-importation and non-exportation agreement, a year from next December or to the next session of Parliament, and the day is won."

The same conviction is expressed in the following letter to his son:

1

TO GOVERNOR FRANKLIN 1

"London, June 30th, 1774.

If it is

"I hear a non-importation agreement is intended. general, and the Americans agree in it, the present Ministry will certainly be knocked up, and their Act repealed; otherwise they and their measures will be continued, and the Stamp Act revived.

"The Scotch in resentment of the Parliament's refusing to lay an additional duty on foreign linen, or to give a bonus upon theirs, are entering into like agreements with regard to cloth and hats from England, and are setting up large manufactures of both, which will be an additional distress to manufacturers here.

"I should be sorry if Ireland is included in your agreement, because that country is much our friend, and the want of flax-seed may distress them exceedingly, but your merchants can best judge. It can only be meant against England, to ensure a change of measures, and not to hurt Ireland, with whom we have no quarrel.

"The Bill for laying duties on spirits and liquors imported into Quebec appoints three-pence a gallon in what is from

1 From the original in the possession of the Earl of Leicester. Published in "Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham" (Albemarle), II, 299.