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should choose to keep up a constant fire in the winter months, you may have from this country a machine for the purpose, cast from the same patterns with those now used at the Bank, or that in Lincoln's Inn Hall, which are placed in the middle of the respective rooms. The smoke of these descends, and passing under ground, rises in some chimney at a distance. Yours must be a chimney built, I suppose, without the house; and, as it ought to draw well to prevent your being troubled with smoke (as they often are at the Bank), it should be on the south side; but this I fear would disfigure your front. That at Lincoln's Inn Hall draws better. They are in the front of temples, cast in iron, with columns, cornices, and every member of elegant architecture.

And I mention casting them from the same patterns or moulds, because, those being already made, a great deal of work and expense will thereby be saved. But if you can cast them in New England, a large vase, or an antique altar, which are more simple forms, may answer the purpose as well, and be more easily executed. Yet after all, when I consider the little effect I have observed from these machines in those great rooms, the complaints of people who have tried Buzaglo's stoves in halls, and how far your meeting-house must exceed them in all its dimensions, I apprehend that after a great deal of expense, and a good deal of dust on the seats and in the pews, which they constantly occasion, you will not find your expectations answered. And persuaded as I am, from philosophic considerations, that no one ever catches the disorder we call a cold from

cold air, and therefore never at meeting, I should think it rather advisable to those who cannot well bear it, to guard against the short inconvenience of cold feet (which only takes place towards the end of the service), by basses or bearskin cases to put the legs in, or by small stoves with a few coals under foot, more majorum.

DXXI

TO SAMUEL COOPER

B. FRANKLIN

LONDON, 7 July, 1773.

DEAR SIR:-I received your very valuable favors of March 15th and April 23d. It rejoices me to find your health so far restored that your friends can again be benefited by your correspondence.

The governor was certainly out in his politics, if he hoped to recommend himself there, by entering upon that dispute with the Assembly. His imprudence in bringing it at all upon the tapis, and his bad management of it, are almost equally censured. The Council and Assembly on the other hand have, by the coolness, clearness, and force of their answers, gained great reputation.

The unanimity of our towns in their sentiments of liberty gives me great pleasure, as it shows the generally enlightened state of our people's minds, and the falsehood of the opinion, much cultivated here by the partisans of arbitrary power in America,

that only a small fraction among us were discontented with the late measures. If that unanimity can be discovered in all the colonies, it will give much greater weight to our future remonstrances. I heartily wish, with you, that some line could be drawn, some bill of rights established for America, that might secure peace between the two countries, so necessary for the prosperity of both. But I think little attention is like to be afforded by our ministers to that salutary work, till the breach becomes greater and more alarming, and then the difficulty or repairing it will be greater in a tenfold proportion.

You mention the surprise of gentlemen to whom those letters have been communicated,' at the restrictions with which they were accompanied, and which they suppose render them incapable of answering any important end. One great reason of forbidding their publication was an apprehension, that it might put all the possessors of such correspondence here upon their guard, and so prevent the obtaining more of it. And it was imagined that showing the originals to so many as were named, and to a few such others as they might think fit, would be sufficient to establish their authenticity, and to spread through the province so just an estimation of the writers as to strip them of all their deluded friends, and demolish effectually their interest and influence. The letters might be shown even to some of the governor's and lieutenant-governor's partisans, and spoken of to everybody; for there was no restraint proposed to talking of them, but only to copying.

I Governor Hutchinson's letters.

However, the terms given with them could only be those with which they were received.

The great defect here is, in all sorts of people, a want of attention to what passes in such remote countries as America; an unwillingness to read any thing about them if it appears a little lengthy, and a disposition to postpone the consideration even of the things they know they must at last consider, that so they may have time for what more immediately concerns them, and with all, enjoy their amusements, and be undisturbed in the universal dissipation. In other respects, though some of the great regard us with a jealous eye, and some are angry with us, the majority of the nation rather wish us well, and have no desire to infringe our liberties. And many console themselves under the apprehension of declining liberty here, that they or their posterity shall be able to find her safe and vigorous in America. With sincere and great esteem, I am, etc.,

B. FRANKLIN.

DXXII

TO MRS. JANE MECOM

LONDON, 7 July, 1773.

DEAR SISTER-I believe it is long since I have written any letters to you. I hope you will excuse it. I am oppressed with too much writing, and am apt to postpone when I presume upon some indulgence.

I received duly yours of January 19th, April 20th, May 5th, and May 15th.

Our relations, Jenkins and Paddock, came to see me. They seem to be clever, sensible men.

Is there not a little affectation in your apology for the incorrectness of your writing? Perhaps it is rather fishing for commendation. You write better, in my opinion, than most American women. Here indeed the ladies write generally with more elegance than the gentlemen.

By Capt. Hatch went a trunk containing the goods you wrote for. I hope they will come safe to hand and please. Mrs. Stevenson undertook the purchasing them with great readiness and pleasure. Teasdale, whom you mention as selling cheap, is broke and gone. Perhaps he sold too cheap. But she did her best.

I congratulate you on the marriage of your daughter. My love to them. I am obliged to good Dr. Cooper for his prayers.

Your shortness of breath might perhaps be relieved by eating honey with your bread instead of butter, at breakfast.

Young Hubbard seems a sensible boy, and fit, I should think, for a better business than the sea. I am concerned to hear of the illness of his good mother.

If Brother John had paid that bond, there was no occasion to recall it for you to pay it; for I suppose he might have had effects of our father's to pay it with. I never heard how it was managed.

Mrs. Stevenson presents her respects, and I am

ever,

Your affectionate brother,

B. FRANKLIN.

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