ART. VI.-The Private Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. F. R. S. &c.: comprising a Series of Letters on Miscellaneous, Literary, and Political Subjects; written between the Years 1753 and 1790, illustrating the Memoirs of his Public and Private Life, and developing the Secret History of his Political Transactions and Negociations. Volume the Second. Now first published from the original, by his Grandson, WM. TEMPLE FRANKLIN. London, Colburn, 4to. pp. 449. 1817.

THE reputation of Dr. Franklin was so early established, that nearly forty years prior to his decease a collection of his works was made. This first compilation was in 1751, but it consisted merely of letters communicated by the author to Mr. Peter Collinson on Electricity, which appeared in the form of a pamphlet. That work was enlarged in 1752, again in 1754; and afterwards in 1766, by the addition of letters and papers on other philosophical subjects, when it was extended to a quarto, exceeding the dimensions of the volume now under our review.

In the year 1779 another collection was published by a different editor, composed of papers not in the preceding work, and which was printed both in quarto and octavo, with the title of "Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces."

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Subsequently, in 1787, a third collection was produced, entitled Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers ;" and in 1793 issued from the press two volumes 8vo., comprehending memoirs of the life of Dr. Franklin, with "Essays Humorous, Moral, and Literary, chiefly in the Manner of the Spectator."

Lastly, were published in three volumes, 8vo. "The Complete Works in Philosophy, Politics, and Morals, of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, now first collected and arranged, with Memoirs of his early Life, written by Himself." That they were not the "Complete Works," as the title expresses, may be supposed from an extract we shall give from the advertisement or preface of this very publication, and in which what is denominated, the "extraordinary conduct" of Mr. Wm. Temple Franklin, the publisher of the quarto volume before us, is adverted to with severe reprehension.

"In bequeathing his papers, it was no doubt the intention of the testator that the world should have the chance of being beneCRIT. REV. VOL. V. Jan. 1817. H

fited by their publication. It was so understood by the person in question, his grandson, who accordingly, shortly after the death of his great relative, hastened to London, the best mart for literary property, employed an amanuensis for many months in copying, ransacked our public libraries that nothing might escape, and at length had so far prepared the works of Dr. Franklin for the press, that proposals were made by him to several of our principal booksellers for the sale of them. They were to form three quarto volumes, and were to contain all the writings, published and unpublished, of Franklin, with memoirs of his life, brought down by himself to the year 1757, and continued to his death by the legatee. They were to be published in three different languages, and the countries corresponding to these languages, France, Germany, and England, on the same day. The terms asked for the copy-right of the English edition were high, amounting to several thousand pounds, which occasioned a little demur, but eventually they would no doubt have been obtained. Nothing more, however, was heard of the proposals or the work in this its fair market. The proprietor, it seems, had found a bidder of a different description in some emissary of government, whose object was to withhold the manuscripts from the world, not to benefit it by their publication; and they thus either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for suppressing them." (p. vii-ix.)

Such are the circumstances under which the present publisher (standing in the near relation of grandson and secretary to his virtuous and distinguished ancestor) appears on this occasion, and we have adverted to them in order that his attention may be drawn to the situation, and that he may justify himself before the world for the long suppres ́sion of those facts and particulars with which he has been charged. To perform this duty, he will have a fair tunity when the first volume of the present work shall be issued from the press; and he will then, perhaps, acquaint us if any interesting letters have been withheld, which we ourselves strongly suspect, on the information of some of the parties who were among the most estimable of the correspondents of Dr. Franklin.

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We must state here another objection to the mode in which this work is published,-giving the second volume prior to the first, with the apology, that unavoidable circumstances having retarded the printing of the memoirs of Dr. Franklin, it has been thought expedient to give his private correspondence the precedence. Precisely the same excuse was made on another occasion, when the Speeches of of a popular orator were published, which we took the portunity of reviewing, under the expectation that the bio

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graphical part would deserve some notice; but when it appeared, it was found to be beneath all criticism, and the purchasers of the Speeches were in the condition of being either obliged to retain the work in an unfinished state, or put to the additional expense of procuring what was wholly worthless.

Whether we are to attribute it to his grandson, or to his bookseller, we do not know; but a prominence is unnecessarily given by a fac-simile of the hand-writing of Dr. Franklin to an intemperate letter, which would indicate that the writer was exposed to the influence of the dark passions of the most outrageous demagogue. It is in these terms:"Philada. July 5, 1775.

" MR. STRAHAN,*

"You are a Member of Parliament, and one of that Majority which has doomed my Country to Destruction.-You have begun to burn our Towns, and murder our People.-Look upon your Hands! They are stained with the Blood of your Relations!-You and I were long Friends:-You are now my Enemy,-and

"I am,

"Yours,

"* King's Printer, London.

B. FRANKLIN."

It is the more unfair to obtrude upon us that indecent effusion, because, whatever might have been the sentiments of the doctor on the first ebullition of feeling, when the political storm commenced between Great Britain and America, every appearance of personal malignity towards Mr. Strahan was afterwards removed; and in this very publication we have two most friendly letters from the American to the English printer, dated from Passy, in February and August, 1784; the last of which is a recommendation of this grandson, of which he himself was the bearer, and which therefore could not well have escaped the recollection of Mr. William Temple Franklin.

In order without delay to gratify our readers with the extracts from the Correspondence, we shall only premise, that the author of these letters, unshackled by the fetters of education, has shewn the superiority of knowledge over mere learning; has discovered the progress that may be made, both in natural and moral science, by the unassisted efforts of a sound and clear understanding; and has reduced to humiliation and shame, by the candour, the simplicity, and the manliness of his political conduct, those feeble and pigmy statesmen who would accomplish by

chicane, intrigue, and falsehood, that in which the means should be noble as the purpose, the independence, the happiness, and the glory of mankind.

The first extract we make is a sort of confession of faith, with respect to which the Doctor enjoined secresy to the Reverend President Stiles, to whom it is addressed: and it is the more interesting, as it was the only general declaration of his opinions on such a subject, and was made within less than six weeks before his death. The firmness of his belief in every essential article connected with an overruling Providence, with the perfect system of morals and religion taught by Jesus, and with the consolatory doctrine of a future state, will be a full answer to the calumnies which probably led to the inquiry of the American professor.

"You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed: I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is like to see; but I apprekend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss by distinguishing the believers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure. I shall only add respecting myself, that having experienced the goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously through a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness." (p. 131-2.)

His practical morality, in the fortitude and cheerfulness with which he endured the severest trials, the interest he took in the happiness of his friends, and the habitual feeling he indulged of meeting them when the corporeal impediments are removed by death, will be apparent in the following

extract from a letter to Mr. Jordain, of London, dated May 18, 1787, when the writer was eighty-two years of age.

"Your letter reminds me of many happy days we have passed together, and the dear friends with whom we passed them; some of whom, alas! have left us, and we must regret their loss, although our Hawkesworth* is become an adventurer in more happy regions; and our Stanleyt gone, where only his own harmony can be exceeded.' You give me joy in telling me that you are on the pinnacle of content. Without it no situation can be happy; with it, any. One means of becoming content with one's situation is the comparing it with a worse. Thus when I consider how many terrible diseases the human body is liable to, I comfort myself that only three incurable ones have fallen to my share, viz. the gout, the stone, and old age; and that these have not yet deprived me of my natural cheerfulness, my delight in books and enjoyment of social conversation.

"I am glad to hear that Mr. Fitzmaurice is married, and has an amiable lady and children. It is a better plan than that he once proposed, of getting Mrs. Wright to make him a wax-work wife to sit at the head of his table. For after all, wedlock is the natural state of man, A bachelor is not a complete human being. He is like the odd half of a pair of scissars, which has not yet found its fellow, and therefore is not even half so useful as they might be together.

"I hardly know which to admire most, the wonderful discoveries made by Herschel,‡ or the indefatigable ingenuity by which he has been enabled to make them. Let us hope, my friend, that when free from these bodily embarrassments, we may roam together through some of the systems he has explored, conducted by some of our old companions already acquainted with them. Hawkesworth will enliven our progress with his cheerful sensible converse, and Stanley accompany the music of the spheres." (p. 103-104.)

His sentiments elsewhere expressed, on a subject adverted to in such an amusing way in the preceding letter, contain so admirable a lesson, that we cannot persuade ourselves to exclude them. It was to a familiar friend that he writes in these terms:

"TO JOHN ALLEYNE, ESQ.

"DEAR JACK, Craven-street, August 9, 1768. "You desire, you say, my impartial thoughts on the subject of an early marriage, by way of answer to the numberless objections-that

"John Hawkesworth, LL.D. author of the Adventurer, and compiler of the account of the Discoveries made in the South Seas by Captain Cook." "John Stanley, an eminent musician and composer, became blind at the age of two years."

+ "The astronomer."