him under suspicion; his insulting the assembly without the least provocation, by charging them with disloyalty, and with making an infringement on the king's prerogatives,-only because they had presumed to name (in a bill offered for his assent) a trifling officer (something like one of your toll gatherers at a turnpike), without consulting him, and his refusing several of their bills, or proposing amendments needlessly disgusting;-these things bring him and his government into sudden contempt; all regard for him in the assembly is lost; all hopes of happiness under proprietory government are at an end. It has now scarce authority enough left to keep the common peace; and was another mob to come against him, I question whether, though a dozen men were sufficient, one could find so many in Philadelphia willing to rescue him or his attorney general, I won't say from hanging, but from any common insult. All this too has happened in a few weeks!

In fine, every thing seems in this country, once the land of peace and order, to be running fast into anarchy and confusion.

I have been already too long. Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours affectionately,

B. FRANKLIN,

DR. FRANKLIN TO

Sept. 14, 1767.

WE set out on the 28th post: all the way to Dover we were furnished with postchaises hung so as to lean forward, the top coming down over one's eyes, like a hood, as if to prevent one's seeing the country, which being one of my great pleasures, I was engaged in perpetual disputes with the innkeepers, hostlers, and postilions, about getting the straps taken up a hole or two before, and let down as much behind: they insisted that the chaise leaning forward was an ease to the horses, and that the contrary would kill them. I suppose, the chaise leaning forward looks to them like a willingness to go forward; and that its hanging back shows a reluctance. They added other reasons, that were no reasons at all; and made me, as upon a hundred other occasions, almost wish that mankind had never been endowed with a reasoning faculty, since they know so little how to make use of it, and so often mislead themselves by it, and that they had been furnished with a good sensible instinct instead of it.

At Dover, the next morning, we embarked for Calais, with a number of passengers who had never been before at sea. They would previously make a hearty breakfast, because, if the wind should fail, we might not get over till supper time. Doubtless, they thought that when they had paid for their breakfast they had a right to it, and that when they had swallowed it they

were sure of it. But they had scarce been out half an hour before the sea laid claim to it, and they were obliged to deliver it up so it seems there are uncertainties, even beyond those between the cup and the lip. If ever you go to sea, take my advice, and live sparingly a day or two beforehand; sea sickness, if any, will be the lighter and sooner over.

We got to Calais that evening: various impositions we suffered from boatmen, porters, &c. on both sides the water; I know not which are most rapacious, the English or French; but the latter have, with their knavery, the most polite

ness.

The roads we found equally good with our's in England; in some places paved with smooth stones, like our new streets, for many miles together, and rows of trees on each side, and there are no turnpikes. But then the poor peasants complained to us grievously, that they were obliged to work upon the roads full two months in the year, without being paid for their labour. (Whether this is truth, or whether, like Englishmen, they grumble, cause or no cause, I have not been able fully to inform myself.)

The women we saw at Calais, on the road, and at Boulogne, and in the inns and villages, are generally of a dark complexion; but arriving at Abbeville, we found a sudden change, a multitude both of men and women, in that place, appearing remarkably fair. Whether this is owing to a small colony of spinners, woolcombers, and weavers, brought hither from Holland with the woollen manufactory, about sixty years ago, or

to their being less exposed to the sun than in other places, their business keeping them much within doors, I know not; perhaps, as in some other cases, different causes may club in producing the effect, but the effect itself is certain. Never was I in a place of greater industry, wheels and looms going in every house. As soon as we left Abbeville, the swarthiness returned: I speak generally, for here are some women at Paris, who I think are not whitened by art. As to rouge, they do not pretend to imitate nature in laying it on; there is no gradual diminution of the colour, from the full bloom in the middle of the cheek, to the faint tint near the sides; nor does it show itself differently in different faces. I have not had the honour of being at any lady's toilet, to see how it is laid on, but I fancy I can tell you how it is, or may be done. Cut a hole of three inches diameter in a piece of paper, place it on the side of your face, in such a manner that the top of the hole may be just under your eye; then, with a brush dipped in the colour, paint face and paper together; so, when the paper is taken off, there will remain a round patch of red, exactly the form of the hole. This is the mode, from the actress on the stage, upwards, through all ranks of ladies to the princesses of the blood; but it stops there, the queen not using it, having, in the serenity, complacence, and benignity that shine so eminently in, or rather through, her countenance, though now an old woman, to do extremely well without it,

You see I speak of the queen as if I had seen her, and so I have; you must know, I have