adverse appearances upon the resolution of his countrymen, he emphatically detailed those circumstances, in his correspondence with America; adding, at the same time, accounts of the domestic embarrassments, and growing despair of the enemy.

When the news of the surrender of Burgoyne reached France in October, 1777, and produced there an explosion of public opinion, he seized upon the auspicious crisis, to make his decisive effort, by urging the most persuasive motives for a formal recognition and alliance. The epoch of the treaty concluded with the court of Versailles, on the 6th of February, 1778, is one of the most splendid in his dazzling career.

In conjunction with Mr. John Adams, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Laurens, he signed the provisional articles of peace, November 30, 1782, and the definitive treaty, September 30, 1783. While he was in France, he was appointed one of the commissioners to examine Mesmer's animal magnetism. In 1784, being desirous of returning to his native country, he requested that an ambassador might` be appointed in his place, and on the arrival of his successor, Mr. Jefferson, he immediately sailed for Philadelphia, where he arrived in September, 1785. He was received with universal applause, and was soon appointed president of the supreme executive council. In 1787, he was a delegate to the grand convention, which formed the constitution of the United States. In this convention he had differed in some points from the majority, but when the articles were ultimately decreed, he said to his colleagues, "We ought to have but one opinion; the good of our country requires that the resolution should be unanimous;" and he signed.

On the 17th of April, 1790, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, he expired, in the city of Philadelphia; encountering this last solemn conflict, with the same philosophical tranquillity and pious resignation to the will of heaven, which had distinguished him through all the various events of his life.

He was interred on the 21st of April, and congress ordered a general mourning for him throughout America, of one month. In France, the expression of public grief was scarcely less enthusiastic. There the event

was solemnized, under the direction of the municipality of Paris, by funeral orations; and the national assembly, his death being announced in a very eloquent, and pathetic discourse, decreed, that each of the members should wear mourning for three days, "in commemoration of the event;" and that a letter of condolence, for the irreparable loss they had sustained, should be directed to the American congress. Honours extremely glorious to his memory, and such, it has been remarked, as were never before paid by any public body of one nation, to the citizen of another.

He lies buried in the north-west corner of Christ church-yard; distinguished from the surrounding dead, by the humility of his sepulchre. He is covered by a small marble slab, on a level with the surface of the earth; and bearing the single inscription of his name, with that of his wife. A monument sufficiently corresponding to the plainness of his manners, little suitable to the splendour of his virtues.

He had two children, a son and a daughter, and several grand-children, who survived him. The son, who had been governor of New Jersey, under the British government, adhered, during the revolution, to the royal party, and spent the remainder of his life in England. The daughter married Mr. Bache, of Philadelphia, whose descendants yet reside in that city.

Franklin enjoyed, during the greater part of his life, a healthy constitution, and excelled in exercises of strength and activity. In stature, he was above the middle size, manly, athletic, and well proportioned. His countenance, as it is represented in his portrait, is distinguished by an air of serenity and satisfaction; the natural consequences of a vigorous temperament, of strength of mind, and conscious integrity: It is also marked, in visible characters, by deep thought and inflexible resolution.

The whole life of Franklin, his meditations and his labours, have all been directed to public utility; but the grand object that he had always in view, did not shut his heart against private friendship; he loved his family, and his friends, and was extremely beneficent. In society he was sententious, but not fluent; a listener rather

than a talker; an informing rather than a pleasing companion: impatient of interruption, he often mentioned the custom of the Indians, who always remain silent some time before they give an answer to a question, which they have heard attentively; unlike some of the politest societies in Europe, where a sentence can scarcely be finished without interruption. In the midst of his greatest occupations for the liberty of his country, he had some physical experiments always near him in his closet; and the sciences, which he rather discovered than studied, afforded him a continual source of pleasure. He made various bequests and donations to cities, public bodies, and individuals.

The following epitaph was written by Dr. Franklin, for himself, when he was only twenty-three years of age, as appears by the original (with various corrections) found among his papers, and from which this is a faith

ful copy.

"The body of

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

PRINTER,

(Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,

And stript of its lettering and gilding,)
Lies here, food for worms:

But the work shall not be lost,

For it will (as he believed) appear once more,
In a new, and more elegant edition,

Revised and corrected

by

THE AUTHOR."

GADSDEN, CHRISTOPHER, lieutenant-governor of South Carolina, and a distinguished friend of his country, was born about the year 1724. So high was his reputation in the colony in which he lived, that he was appointed one of the delegates to the congress, which

met at New York in October, 1765, to petition against the stamp-act.

Judge Johnson, in his life of general Greene, says, "There was at least one man in South Carolina, who, as early as 1766, foresaid and foretold the views of the British government, and explicitly urged his adherents to the resolution to resist even to death. General Gadsden, it is well known, and there are still living witnesses to prove it, always favoured the most decisive and energetic measures. He thought it a folly to temporize, and insisted that cordial reconciliation on honourable terms, was impossible. When the news of the repeal of the stamp-act arrived, and the whole community was in ecstasy at the event, he, on the contrary, received it with indignation, and privately convening a party of his friends beneath the celebrated Liberty-Tree, he there harangued them at considerable length on the folly of relaxing their opposition and vigilance, or indulging the fallacious hope that Great Britain would relinquish her designs or pretensions. He drew their attention to the preamble of the act, and forcibly pressed upon them the absurdity of rejoicing at an act that still asserted and maintained the absolute dominion over them. And then reviewing all the chances of succeeding in a struggle to break the fetters whenever again imposed on them, he pressed them to prepare their minds for the event. The address was received with silent, but profound devotion, and with linked hands, the whole party pledged themselves to resist; a pledge that was faithfully redeemed when the hour of trial arrived. It was from this event

that the Liberty-Tree took its name. The first convention of South Carolina held their meeting under it."

He was also chosen a member of the congress which met in 1774; and on his return early in 1776, received the thanks of the provincial assembly for his services. He was among the first who advocated republican principles, and wished to make his country independent of the monarchical government of Great Britain.

During the siege of Charleston, in 1780, he remained within the lines with five of the council, while governor Rutledge, with the other three, left the city, at the earnesti request of general Lincoln. Several months after

the capitulation, he was taken out of his bed on the 27th of August, and, with most of the civil and military officers, transported in a guard-ship to St. Augustine. This was done by the order of lord Cornwallis, and it was in violation of the rights of prisoners on parole. Guards were left at their houses, and the private papers of some of them were examined. A parole was offered at St. Augustine, but such was the indignation of lieutenantgovernor Gadsden, at the ungenerous treatment which he had received, that he refused to accept it, and bore a close confinement in the castle for forty-two weeks, with the greatest fortitude.

Garden, in his anecdotes of the revolutionary war, gives the following interesting particulars: "The conduct of the British commanders towards this venerable patriot, in the strongest manner evinced their determination rather to crush the spirit of opposition, than by conciliation to subdue it. The man did not exist to whose delicate sense of honour, even a shadow of duplicity would have appeared more abhorrent, than general Gadsden. Transported by an arbitrary decree, with many of the most resolute and influential citizens of the republic, to St. Augustine, attendance on parade was peremptorily demanded; when a British officer stepping forward, said, 'Expediency, and a series of political Occurrences, have rendered it necessary to remove you from Charleston to this place; but, gentlemen, we have no wish to increase your sufferings; to all, therefore, who are willing to give their paroles, not to go beyond the limits prescribed to them, the liberty of the town will be allowed; a dungeon will be the destiny of such as refuse to accept the indulgence.' The proposition generally acceded to. But when general Gadsden was called to give this new pledge of faith, he indignantly exclaimed,With men who have once deceived me, I can enter into no new contract. Had the British com

was

manders regarded the terms of the capitulation of Charleston, I might now, although a prisoner, under my own roof, have enjoyed the smiles and consolations of my surrounding family; but even without a shadow of accusation proffered against me, for any act incon sistent with my plighted faith, I am torn from them

N