THE

OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

LL.D. F.R.S. &c.

MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, AND FOR THE TREATY OF PEACE
AND INDEPENDENCE WITH GREAT BRITAIN, &c. &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.
PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS,
BY HIS GRANDSON

WILLIAM TEMPLE FRANKLIN.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

SECOND EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN,

PUBLIC LIBRARY, CONDUIT STREET, HANOVER SQUARE.

1817.

London:

PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY,

TOOKE'S COURT, CHANCERY LANE.

1817.

PREFACE

1817 vil

то

THE FIRST EDITION

OF THE

PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.

FAMILIAR letters have been usually considered as exhibiting a portraiture of the human mind. ; and though perhaps they are not always to be so regarded, especially in the intercourse of public men upon subjects involving particular interests and questions of national policy; yet even from these documents the most valuable materials of history are drawn, and the secret springs of great events are disclosed. Hence it is, that a deserved importance has ever been attached to the correspondence of persons who have figured with disM533948