But your lordship mentions "the king's paternal solicitude for promoting the establishment of lasting peace and union with the colonies." If by peace is here meant, a peace to be entered into by distinct states, now at war; and his majesty has given your lordship powers to treat with us of such a peace, I may venture to say, though without authority, that I think a treaty for that purpose not quite impracticable, before we enter into foreign alliances. But I am persuaded you have no such powers. Your nation, though, by punishing those American governors who have fomented the discord, rebuilding our burnt towns, and repairing as far as possible the mischiefs done us, she might recover a great share of our regard, and the greatest share of our growing commerce, with all the advantages of that additional strength, to be derived from a friendship with us; yet I know too well her abounding pride and deficient wisdom, to believe she will ever take such salutary measures. Her fondness for conquest as a warlike nation; her lust of dominion as an ambitious one; and her thirst for a gainful monopoly as a commercial one (none of them legitimate causes of war) will join to hide from her eyes every view of her true interest, and continually goad her on in these ruinous distant expeditions, so destructrive both of lives and of treasure, that they must prove as pernicious to her in the end, as the Croisades formerly were to most of the nations of Europe.

I have not the vanity, my lord, to think of intimidating, by thus predicting the effects of this war; for I know it will in England have the fate of all my former predictions; not to be believed till the event shall verify it.

Long did I endeavor, with unfeigned and unwearied zeal, to preserve from breaking that fine and noble porcelaine vase......the British empire; for I knew that being once broken, the separate parts could not retain even their share of the strength and value that existed in the whole; and that a perfect re-union of those parts could scarce ever be hoped for. Your lordship may possibly remember the tears of joy that wetted my cheek, when, at your good

sister's in London, you once gave me expectations, that a reconciliation might soon take place. I had the misfortune to find these expectations disappointed, and to be treated as the cause of the mischief I was laboring to prevent. My consolation under that groundless and malevolent treatment was, that I retained the friendship of many wise and good men in that country; and among the rest, some share in the regard of lord Howe.

The well-founded esteem, and permit me to say affection, which I shall always have for your lordship, make it painful to me to see you engaged in conducting a war, the great ground of which (as described in your letter) is "the necessity of preventing the American trade from passing into foreign channels." To me it seems, that neither the obtaining or retaining any trade, how valuable soever, is an object for which men may justly spill each other's blood; that the true and sure means of extending and securing commerce, are the goodness and cheapness of commodities; and that the profits of no trade can ever be equal to the expence of compelling it, and holding it by fleets and armies. I consider this war against us, therefore, as both unjust and unwise; and I am persuaded, that cool and dispassionate posterity will condemn to infamy those who advised it; and that even success will not save from some degree of dishonor, those who have voluntarily engaged to conduct it.

I know your great motive in coming hither, was the hope of being instrumental in a reconciliation; and I believe when you find that to be impossible, on any terms given. you to propose, you will then relinquish so odious a command, and return to a more honorable private station.

With the greatest and most sincere respect, I have the honor to be, my lord,

Your lordship's most obedient humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN.

DR. FRANKLIN was supposed to have been the inventor of a little emblematical design at the commencement of the disputes, representing the state of Great Britain and the then colonies, should the former persist in restraining the American trade, destroying the currency, and taxing the people by laws made by a legislature in which they were not represented.-Great Britain was supposed to have been placed upon the globe: but the colonies, that is her limbs, being severed from her, she was seen lifting her eyes and mangled stumps to heaven; her shield, which she was unable to wield, lay useless by her side; her lance had pierced the Eastern States; the laurel branch was fallen from the hand of Pennsylvania; the English oak had lost its head, and stood a bare trunk with a few withered branches; briars and thorns were on the ground beneath it; the British ships had brooms at their topmast heads, denoting their being upon sale; and Britannia herself was seen sliding off the world, no longer able to hold its balance; her fragments overspread with the labels date obolum Belisario.-This in short, was the fable of the belly and the members reversed.-But the story is here noted chiefly for the sake of the moral, and is as follows:

(( THE MORAL.

"THE political moral of this picture is now easily discovered. History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of its people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is intitled to, and ought to enjoy; it being a matter of no moment to the state, whether a subject grows rich and flourishing on the Thames or the Ohio, in Edinburgh or Dublin. These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed: from whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connexions, necessarily ensues; by which the whole state is weakened and perhaps ruined for ever."

The design was printed on a card, and Dr. Franklin at the time occasionally used to write his notes on such cards. It was also printed on a half sheet of paper, with an explanation by some other person, and the moral given above. The drawing was but moderately executed.

The sentiments, applied to the picture which they were annexed to, were well calculated to produce reflection; they form part of the same system of political ethics, with the following fragment of a sentence, which Dr. Franklin inserted in a political publication of one of his friends. "The attempts to establish arbitrary power over so great a part of the British empire, are to the imminent hazard of our most valuable commerce, and of that national strength, security, and felicity, which depend on union and liberty;"The preservation of which, he used to say, "had been the great object and labor of his life; the whole being such a thing as the world before

never saw."

+

I RECEIVED the letter your lordship did me the honor of writing to me the 18th past, and am much obliged by your kind congratulations on the return of peace, which I hope will be lasting.

With regard to the terms on which lands may be acquired in America, and the manner of beginning new settlements on them, I cannot give better information than may be found in a book lately printed at London, under some such title as—“Letters from a Pennsylvanian Farmer, by Hector St. John." The only encouragement we hold out to strangers are, a good climate, fertile soil, wholesome air and water, plenty of provisions and food, good pay for labor, kind neighbors, good laws, and a hearty welcome. depends on a man's own industry and virtue. cheap, but they must be bought. All settlements are undertaken at private expence; the public contributes nothing but defence and justice. I have long observed of your people, that their sobriety, frugality, industry, and honesty, seldom fail of success in America, and of procuring them a good establishment among us.

The rest

Lands are

I do not recollect the circumstance you are pleased to mention, of my having saved a citizen at St. Andrew's by giving a turn to his disorder; and I am curious to know, what the disorder was, and what the advice I gave, that

x From the Gentleman's Magazine, for July, 1794, to which it was commu. nicated by the nobleman to whom it is addressed.

proved so salutary.

With great regard I have the honor to be, my lord, your lordship's most obedient and most

humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN. ·

Remarks concerning the Savages of North-America.

SAVAGES we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.

Perhaps, if we could examine the manners of different nations with impartiality, we should find no people so rude, as to be without any rules of politeness; nor any so polite, as not to have some remains of rudeness.

The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors; when old, counsellors; for all their government is by the council or advice of the sages; there is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence they generally study oratory, the best speaker having the most influence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring up the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity the memory of public transactions. These employments of men and women are accounted natural and honorable, Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of leisure for improvement by conversation. Qur laborious manner of life, compared with theirs, they esteem slavish and base; and the learning on which we value ourselves, they regard as frivolous and useless. An instance of this occured at the treaty of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, anno 1744, between the government of Virginia and the Six Nations. After the

y It was a fever in which the Earl of Buchan, then lord Cardross, lay sick at St. Andrew's; and the advice was, not to blister, according to the old practiceand the opinion of the learned Dr. Simson, brother of the celebrated geome. trician at Glasgow.

z This paper and the two next in order were published in separate pamphlets In England, in the year 1784, and afterwards, in 1787.