In reference to this account, after it appeared in print, the following particulars were communicated to William Temple Franklin by Dr. Bancroft:

"Dr. Franklin did not 'stand in a corner of the room,' says Dr. Bancroft, who was for many years one of Dr. Franklin's intimate friends, and was present during the whole transaction before the Privy Council; "he stood close to the fireplace, on that side which was at the right hand of those who were looking toward the fire; in front of which, though at some distance, the members of the Privy Council were seated at a table. I obtained a place on the opposite side of the fireplace, a little farther from the fire; but Dr. Franklin's face was directed towards me, and I had a full, uninterrupted view of it, and his person, during the whole time in which Mr. Wedderburn spoke. The Doctor was dressed in a full-dress suit of spotted Manchester velvet, and stood conspicuously erect. without the smallest movement of any part of his body, The muscles of his face had been previously composed, so as to afford a placid, tranquil expression of countenance, and he did not suffer the slightest alteration of it to appear during the continuance of the speech, in which he was so harshly and improperly treated. In short, to quote the words which he employed concerning himself on another occasion, he kept his 'countenance as immovable as if his features had been made of wood.' This was late on Saturday afternoon. I called on him in Craven Street at an early hour on Monday morning, and, immediately after the usual salutation, he put into my hands a letter which had just been delivered to him. It was from the postmaster-general, and informed him that the king had no further occasion for his (Dr. Franklin's) services, as deputy postmaster-general in America.

"It is a fact that he, as Dr. Priestley mentions, signed the treaties of commerce and eventual alliance with

France, in the clothes which he had worn at the Cockpit, when the preceding transaction occurred. It had been intended, as you may recollect, that these treaties 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 extraordinary, as it had been laid aside for many months. This I noticed to Mr. Deane; and soon after, when a messenger came from Versailles, with a letter from Mr. Gerard, the French plenipotentiary, stating that he was so unwell, from a cold, that he wish 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."

The profound sensation produced by the publication of the Hutchinson letters, and the unmerited obloquy which his part in the matter brought upon Dr. Franklin, decided him, before leaving England, to prepare the detailed account of his connection with these letters, which will be found farther on. He does not reveal the source from which the letters came to him, but Mr. C. Francis Adams, upon the authority of his grandfather, President John Adams, says: "Scarcely a doubt can remain that

I

Sir John Temple was the man who procured the Hutchinson letters and had them delivered to Franklin." This account was not published till it appeared in William Temple Franklin's edition of his grandfather's works, in 1817. Franklin probably found it would do no good to make any such defence in the fury of the storm; and before it had subsided, he had left England, the rupture between the countries had become complete, and the press of England was closed against any thing he might write in vindication of himself or the colonies, until after time and events had given him a far more effective vindication than any he could have penned.'

From whom Franklin really received these letters, is one of those historical puzzles which has exercised the ingenuity of eminent scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. The most satisfactory theory that has yet been presented may be found in a minute furnished by Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, and read by the latter at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Feb. 14, 1878.3 Mr. Bancroft's conclusion, in which Mr. Winthrop expressed his concurrence, is that the Hutchinson letters referred to "were written to produce an effect on George Grenville; that they were sent by Thomas Whately to George Grenville; that they were shown by George Grenville to Lord Temple, and that at Grenville's death they remained among his papers. The custody of the letters under any hypothesis belonged to the executor of Grenville or to the executor of T. Whately. It came to be agreed by all that the letters were never in the hands of the executor of T. Whately. There remains, then, no other place in which to search for them

1 The Life and Works of John Adams, Vol. II., p. 319, note 1. 2 Bigelow's Life of Franklin.

3 Addresses and Speeches by Robert C. Winthrop between 1878 and 1886, Boston.

except among the papers left by Grenville. John Temple, as I believe from his own repeated assertions, ferreted out the matter, and formed the plan of sending them to be read in Boston. But the communication of the papers was made to Franklin by a member of Parliament. For this, the consent of the executor or executors of George Grenville must have been gained. Perhaps Lord Temple was Grenville's executor; I know not; but whoever was charged with the custody of the papers would hardly have suffered them to be used without Lord Temple's consent."

The Diary and Letters of Governor Hutchinson, recently edited by one of his great-grandsons, though it does not furnish any thing decisive of this question, nor even show what was Hutchinson's own impression, goes far to confirm Mr. Bancroft's view, which, as we understand it, is, that John Temple procured the papers to be given to Franklin, and "the member of Parliament" was merely a passive instrument in the matter, and brought upon the stage merely to screen the principal.

The letters had not long been before the public before Hutchinson discovered that his native country could no longer be a home to him; he took refuge in England, where a small pension was assigned him. He died at Brompton in 1780.-EDITOR.

DLX

TO JOSEPH GALLOWAY

LONDON, 18 February, 1774.

DEAR FRIEND:-The acts of the February session, 1773, are at last presented, of which I have lately ac

quainted the committee. They are now before the Board of Trade. I do not yet hear of any objection to the paper-money bill, and hope there can be none that we shall not get over. I observe there is no declaration of the value of the bills, whether proclamation or sterling. Possibly, if this should be taken notice of, it may be thought too loose and uncertain; but it may escape their observation; and, if necessary you can by a little supplement ascertain it.

The treatment of the tea in America has excited great wrath here; but how that will vent itself is not yet known, except that some part of it has fallen upon me; perhaps from a suspicion that I instigated the opposition to its importation. This, however, is not the given reason. My returning Hutchinson's and Oliver's letters to Boston is held out to the public as the great offence for which I am deprived of my office. I will explain to you my conduct in that matter.

Those letters, which had, at the time, been shown about here to several persons, fell into the hands of a gentleman, who produced them to me, to convince me of the truth of a fact, the possibility of which I had in conversation denied; namely, that the sending troops to Boston, and other measures so offensive to the people of New England, did not arise from any inimical disposition in this country towards them, but were projected, proposed, and solicited by some of the principal and best esteemed of their own people. I was convinced accordingly by perusing those letters, and thought it might have a good effect if I

1 The acts of the Pennsylvania Assembly, sent over to be approved by the king.