DLXXVII TO MR. COOMBE I LONDON, 22 July, 1774. DEAR FRIEND:-I received with great pleasure yours of May 15th, as it informed me of your health and happiness. I thank you for your sermon, which I read with satisfaction. I am glad that of my good bishop pleased you. I enclose a speech of his on the same subject. It is deemed here a masterpiece of eloquence. I send also the last edition of some lines of your friend Goldsmith, with the addition of my friend Whitefoord's epitaph, whom you may remember. Also the "Heroic Postscript," the author of which is yet unknown. He may be fond of fame as a poet; but, if he is, his prudence predominates at present, and prevails with him to shun it. That which you are acquiring, as an orator, gives me pleasure as your friend; and it will give you the most solid satisfaction, if you find that by your eloquence you can turn many to righteousness. Without this effect, the preacher or the priest, in my opinion, is not merely sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, which are innocent things; he is rather like the cunning man in the Old Bailey, who conjures and 1 In a letter to his son, dated London, February 3, 1772, Dr. Franklin says: "This will be delivered to you by the Rev. Mr. Coombe, whom I recommend to your friendship as a young gentleman of great merit, integrity, and abilities. He has acquired the esteem of all that knew him here, not as an excellent preacher only, but as practising the morality he preached. I wish him a good settlement in his native country, but I think he would better have found his interest in remaining here." tells fools their fortunes to cheat them out of their money. Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. Hewson return your compliments, with their best wishes. We have lost Mr. Hewson, and a great loss it was. My respects to your good father. Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. DLXXVIII TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN LONDON, 22 July, 1774. MY DEAR CHILD: I have had no line from you by several late opportunities. I flatter myself it is owing not to indisposition, but to the opinion of my having left England, which indeed I hope soon to do. I enclose a letter I have just received from your goddaughter, Mrs. Barry. I wrote to you before that she had married the captain of a ship in the Levant trade. She is now again at Tunis, where you will see she has lately lain in of her third child. Her father, you know, was a geographer, and his daughter has some connection, I think, with the whole globe; being born herself in America, and having her first child in Asia, her second in Europe, and now her third in Africa. Mrs. Stevenson presents her best respects. She too is very happy in her two grandsons. Her daughter, I Lewis Evans, of Philadelphia, the author of maps and geographical writings on some parts of America.-SPARKS. I am ever, our poor Polly, who lately lost her good husband, has become rich by the death of her aunt. my dear Debby, your affectionate husband, DLXXIX TO THOMAS CUSHING B. FRANKLIN. LONDON, 27 July, 1774. SIR: The last line I have been favored with from you is of the 30th of April. I have since written to you several times. I hope our correspondence is not intercepted. This serves to cover a pamphlet or two just published here,' of which I shall send you a number, as I think it may be of use in America to see what sentiments are entertained here; and believing they may be of use here, I have been at some expense in promoting the publication. With great respect, I am, etc., B. FRANKLIN. DLXXX TO WILLIAM FRANKLIN LONDON, 7 September, 1774. DEAR SON: I am glad you have met with my friend Barrows. I wish you to cultivate his acquaintance, and that of Mrs. Barrows, who is an amiable • Probably A True State of the Proceedings in the Parliament of Great Britain, etc., and On the Rise and Progress of the Differences between Great Britain and her American Colonies. See supra, p. 312. woman. I am much obliged to Mr. Panton for his information relating to Mr. Parker's affairs. Cousin Jonathan Williams is now with me, and engaged in posting and settling my accounts, which will be done before the next packet, when I shall send what concerns Parker. You mention that my presence is wished for at the Congress, but no person besides in America has given me the least intimation of such a desire, and it is thought by the great friends of the colonies here, that I ought to stay till the result of the Congress arrives, when my presence here may be useful. All depends on the Americans themselves. If they make, and keep firmly, resolutions not to consume British manufactures till their grievances are redressed, this ministry must fall, and the laws be repealed. This is the opinion of all the wise men here. I hear nothing of the proposal you have made for a congress of governors. I do not wonder so much as you do, that the Massachusetts have not offered payment for the tea. First, because of the uncertainty of the act, which gives them no security that the port shall be opened on their making that payment. Secondly, no precise sum is demanded. Thirdly, no one knows what will satisfy the customhouse officers, nor who the others are that must be satisfied, nor what will satisfy them. And fourthly, they are in the king's power, after all, as to how much of the port shall be opened. As to "doing justice before they ask it," that should have been thought of by the legislature here before they demanded it of the Bostonians. They have extorted many thousand pounds from America unconstitutionally, under color of acts of Parliament, and with an armed force. Of this money they ought to make restitution. They might first have taken out payment for the tea, and returned the rest. But you, who are a thorough courtier, see every thing with government eyes. I am sorry for the loss of Sir William Johnson, especially at this time of danger from an Indian war.1 I see by the papers that you were with him at the time. A Spanish war is now seriously apprehended, and the stocks of course are falling. The August packet is hourly expected, when I hope to hear of your safe return and health. Your affectionate father, B. FRANKLIN. DLXXXI TO PETER TIMOTHY, CHARLESTON, S. C. LONDON, 7 September, 1774. DEAR SIR:-I received your favor of May 26th, and am much obliged by your kind invitation to your house, which I should certainly accept with pleasure if I should ever go to Carolina. You wish me to correspond with you on public affairs. Those relating to America have been, and still continue, in so disagreeable a situation that I cannot write to you upon them with pleasure. Much 'Sir William Johnson died at the place of his residence, near the Mohawk River, on the 11th of July, 1774. |