of the Atlantic, in 1774, which gave a still sharper edge to existing animosities.

In December, 1772, a packet of letters was placed,in Franklin's hands, by an Englishman of high standing, whose name has not been made known, but who gave him express permission to send them to America. These letters have been usually referred to as the Hutchinson Letters, and had been written by Hutchinson, while he was chief-justice of Massachusetts, by Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, and some other tories of Boston, to Thomas Whately, secretary to George Grenville, the author of the stamp-act, while he was at the head of the British cabinet. As the letters were written at Boston, Franklin, being then agent for Massachusetts, sent them, in December, 1772, to Mr. Cushing, speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly, stating, in the letter with which he transmitted them, that he was not at liberty to tell from whom he received them, and that they were neither to be printed nor copied, but might be shown to some of the leading patriots for their satisfaction, and that those very letters had mainly instigated those acts of the British government which the colonies regarded as their principal grievances.

The letters reached their destination, and after being exhibited to various individuals, were laid before the Assembly of Massachusetts, and ultimately printed, by order of that body, as being of great public importance, and as having been written, as their contents proved, to effect public objects. After full consideration of the letters, the Assembly passed some very pointed resolutions in relation to the writers and the public evils produced by their instrumentality, and adopted a petition to the king, asking that the offices of Hutchinson and Oliver, then governor and lieutenant-governor of the colony, might be taken from them.

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When this affair became public in London, it led to a quarrel between Mr. William Whately, brother and executor of Thomas, to whom it was supposed the letters had been addressed, and a Mr. John Temple, who had been an intimate friend of Thomas Whately; and as the quarrel threatened a fatal issue, Franklin, to prevent it, and to relieve both those gentlemen from the suspicion of a breach of trust to which their relations to the deceased Thomas Whately had exposed them, sent a card, in his own name, to the Public Advertiser, acquitting them both of all agency in the matter, and avowing himself as the person who had obtained and transmitted the letters to America, though he still remained faithful to the secret of the individual from whom he had received them.

This magnanimous conduct of Franklin, however, served only to bring upon him the whole tribe of ministerial writers in fiercer assault than ever; and it was arranged that, when the Massachusetts petition for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver should come before the committee of the lords of the privy council, those two functionaries should be heard by counsel against the petition. It was no part of the reason for this procedure that Hutchinson and Oliver were in any danger of removal; for, composed as the council was, they would have been safe against the petitions of united America. But the real object was to give an opportunity for a direct public attack on Franklin, in the hope of bringing odium upon him for his connection with the letters, and thus undermining his political influence as a champion of colonial rights. The person employed for this dishonorable purpose was the Solicitor-general Wedderburn, (afterward Lord Loughborough,) a man of malignant temper, and in high repute for his powers of sarcasm and bitter invective. And these qualities, to the disgrace, not

of Franklin, but of their possessor and those who so meanly permitted the employment of them, were allowed the utmost license.

Franklin, though deeply indignant at the coarse insults heaped upon him and the people he represented, bore himself with a steady and composed dignity worthy of his great character, and the malice of his assailants recoiled upon themselves in the general disgust excited by their conduct. The committee, as a matter of course, reported against the petition, denouncing it as groundless, scandalous, and seditious, and affirming the integrity and honor of the authors of the letters, from whom the people they belied had suffered so much in-. jury. The report was promptly adopted by the privy council; and the next day Franklin was removed from the colonial post office department, the revenue of which he had raised from nothing to nearly three thousand pounds yearly, and which, not long after his removal, fell to nothing again. Both these proceedings are good specimens of the fatuity of the British policy toward the colonies; and, to use the words of a patriot who witnessed what has just been related, “who can wonder at the indignation of the American people, or that the battle of Bunker hill was fought in less than eighteen months afterward?"

The occurrences just related took place in January, 1774; and other events which soon succeeded tended to bring the dispute between the two countries rapidly to a crisis. Franklin's self-respect, after the ignominious treatment he had received, did not permit him to hold any further intercourse with the ministry; and some of his friends believed his stay in England involved so much hazard to his personal liberty, that they advised him to secure his papers and withdraw. But others, friends of the colonies, urged him to await the action of the Amer

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ican congress, which assembled that year, for the first time, in Philadelphia; and in the hope that he might still be of some service, though acting only in a private capacity, he consented to remain. In December, 1774, the petition from Congress was sent to him, with a letter in which the colonial agents in London were requested to unite in presenting it. Franklin, Bollan, and Lee, however, were the only three who acted. They took it to Lord Dartmouth, the colonial secretary, and subsequently, when, with other papers, it had been laid on the table of the house of commons, they asked to be heard in support of it, at the bar of the house. This was denied, however, and the petition was subsequently rejected by a great majority. A little before leaving England, an effort was made by several of the more zealous friends of the colonies, to devise some means of conciliation between the British government and the colonies. To this end various interviews were held between Franklin, Lord Howe, the earl of Chatham, and other eminent whigs; and Franklin, at the request of the principal persons concerned, presented his views, at much length and in various forms, of the principles on which harmony might be restored and the connexion between the two countries permanently settled to the advantage of both. This unofficial and private negotiation continued for some weeks; but though the parties engaged were very sincere, and though Lord Chatham, after several conferences with Franklin, prepared a plan of conciliation which he moved in the house of lords on the 31st of January, 1775, and supported with a powerful speech, yet the hostility of the ministers to the colonies was so strong that "all availed,” says Franklin, “no more than the whistling of the winds, and the plan was rejected." During the debate, however, Franklin received ample compensation for the contumely of Wedderburn.

Lord Sandwich, one of the ministry, opposed even the reception of the plan for consideration; and having, in the course of an intemperate and most unstatesmanlike speech against it, made some bitter allusions to Franklin, who was present, Lord Chatham, in his reply, took occasion to say, that, were the settlement of this great question devolved on him as the first minister of the government, he should not hesitate to seek the aid of "a person so perfectly acquainted with American affairs as the gentleman so injuriously reflected on; one whom all Europe held in high estimation for his knowledge and wisdom, and ranked with our Boyles and Newtons; who was an honor, not to the English nation only, but to human nature."

Other whig noblemen besides the Lords Chatham and Howe, and some even of the tory lords not of the cabinet, regarded Franklin with great respect for his personal character not less than for his knowledge; while, among the men most eminent at that day for learning and philanthropy, his admirers were so numerous as abundantly to compensate him by their friendship and society for the enmity of the enemies of his country; and with this treasure of esteem and honor gathered from every nation in Europe, he left London on the 21st of March, 1775, after a continued residence there of a little more than ten years, for Philadelphia.