BENJAMIN, one of the most distinguished of Americans, alike in science and in politics, was born at Boston in New England, Jan. 17 (N.S.) 1706. His paternal ancestors had lived for many generations on a small freehold in the village of Ecton in Northamptonshire. About the year 1682 his father, Josiah Franklin, in company with some of his neighbours, emigrated to New England, for the sake of that religious liberty which, as nonconformists, was denied them at home. Of seventeen children Benjamin was the youngest but two. He early displayed a strong taste for reading. At the age of eight he was sent to the grammar-school, his father intending to devote him, "as the tythe of his sons," to the church. The cares of a numerous family soon interfered with this design, and at the end of a year Benjamin was sent to another master to learn writing and arithmetic. When ten years old he was taken to assist his father in his business as a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler, a pursuit to which the aspiring boy soon manifested a strong repugnance. He was extremely desirous to go to sea, but the influence of his father, a man of strong judgment, who took great pains in the moral training of his family, prevailed to keep him at home. The boy's love of books found little scope in the small library of his father: it consisted chiefly of works of polemical theology, which were read through with little advantage, but contained, among other things, a copy of Plutarch's Lives, Defoe's Essay on Projects, and Mather's Essay to do Good. The latter, Franklin thought, exercised considerable influence on his mind. Already in the practical and tangible, the inquiring but unimaginative mind of the boy, "father of the man," had found its congenial aliment. His father at length determined to make Benjamin a printer; and in his twelfth year he was bound apprentice to his brother James. He soon became an excellent workman, and now found more access than ever to books, to which he devoted all his leisure hours. As is usual, even with the least poetical of youths, he essayed rhyme. One or two of his ballads sold well in the streets; but the sound advice of his father discouraged him from further attempts, and impressed him with the necessity of attention to prose composition. An odd volume of the Spectator furnished the stimulus to his first efforts, and the model of his style. By carefully cultivating the practice of composition, he at a comparatively early age acquired considerable ease and dexterity in writing. His mature style Benjamin was extremely clear and simple, generally nervous, often Franklin-like, and in rare instances touched with eloquence. The same practical sagacity which so early distinguished his intellectual efforts was manifested in his control over his passions. At the age of sixteen he met a book recommending a vegetable diet. He at once adopted it, saving time and money by the lightness of his meals, and devoting the gain in both to his one luxury of books. About this time he read the Memorabilia of Xenophon. The Socratic method of reasoning greatly charmed him; and having already imbibed sceptical principles from Shaftesbury and Collins, he found it peculiarly suited to puzzle others without committing himself to positive assertions. Gradually, however, he left off this method, retaining only the habit of expressing himself with caution and diffidence, a habit of which his acute knowledge of human nature afterwards led him to see the great utility.

In 1721 his brother established a newspaper in Boston, and Benjamin was employed at once as a compositor, printer, and deliverer. Though thus abundantly occupied, he determined to try his hand also as a contributor, and accordingly sent in several anonymous essays. They were highly approved of; but when the authorship was discovered, his brother, apprehensive of Benjamin's becoming too vain, manifested some displeasure. From this time apparently mutual jealousies sprang up between them. Benjamin submitted impatiently to the domination of his brother. "Perhaps," he says, "this harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might be a means of impressing me with the aversion to arbitrary power which has stuck to me through my whole life." An opportunity soon occurred for a disruption. An article in the paper gave offence to the provincial government; James was censured, and imprisoned for a month, and ordered no longer to print his newspaper. To evade this order, it was determined to print the paper in Benjamin's name; and in order to overcome the legal difficulty, the apprentice's indenture was formally discharged, while a new one was privately signed, binding him to fulfil his engagement. On the breaking out of new differences with his brother, Benjamin unfairly took advantage of this compromise, and asserted his freedom. This he styles one of the first errata of his life. His brother having warned all the printers of Boston against him, Benjamin determined to leave the city, and accordingly made his escape to New York, where he found himself, in his seventeenth year, with little money and no friends. Obtaining no employment, he set out for Philadelphia. His own account of this journey, and of his first appearance in the streets of Philadelphia, eating a haltpenny roll, with another under each arm, is one of the most interesting passages in his autobiography. Here he formed an engagement with a printer named Keimer, who had recently commenced business. Franklin's industry and frugality soon secured him a comfortable position. His abilities attracted the notice of Sir William Keith, the governor of the province, who encouraged him to set up as a printer on his own account, and even proposed that he should go to England to procure the necessary printing-stock. Franklin set sail, accompanied by his friend James Ralph, arrived in London on the 24th December 1724, and only then discovered that his patron's promises

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There is an anecdote which seems characteristic of what the boy Franklin may be conceived, as the proper type of sharp irreverent young America. His father observed the old Puritan fashion of saying very long grace before and after meat, which caused much weariness to Benjamin. Once, when they were sailing the winter store of provisions, he said, "Father, could you not say grace over the cask, once for all? it would be a vast saving of time."

He did not practise Vegetarianism long, his good sense yielding to the force of the argument suggested by seeing a small fish taken out of the inside of a bigger one.

The New England Courant. Franklin calls this the second newspaper published in America. Mr Sparks (Works of Franklin, vol. I., p. 23) shows that it was the fourth. "About this time, 1771," says Franklin, "there are no less than five and twenty." In 1850 there were two thousand eight hundred.

Afterwards a man of some note as a party writer on history and politics, and commemorated by Pope in the Dunciad. Benjamin were entirely delusive. He immediately found employment, however. At Palmer's, in Bartholomew's Close, he was engaged in printing the second edition of Wollaston's *Religion of Nature*. Some of the arguments appearing to him defective, he wrote and printed his remarks upon them under the title, *A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain*. His aim was to prove that "whatever is right," and that virtue and vice are mere names. This pamphlet was the means of introducing him to several men of some note, among others to Dr Mandeville. Five years later he had come to very different conclusions on these subjects, and wrote a tract demonstrating the fallacy of his former opinions. Shortly after this he removed to a more extensive printing-house, where his temperance, intelligence, and industry, soon gained him respect and influence.

On the 23rd July 1726 he left London in company with a Mr Denham, who was about to open a store in Philadelphia. With him he lived several months, assisting in the management of the business. About this time he established a club for mutual improvement and discussion, called the *Junto*, which existed for many years, and proved of no small public utility. On the death of Mr Denham, Franklin resumed his proper work, and again found employment with his former master, Keimer. He soon put the business on a good footing, and, besides his duties as printer and warehouseman, made ink, and even types, for the establishment. As the other hands improved under Franklin's management, Keimer thought he could do without him, and, after a quarrel, they separated. Soon after, however, Franklin was prevailed upon to assist Keimer in executing an order to print bank notes in New Jersey. His mechanical ingenuity here became available in the construction of a copperplate press—the first of its kind seen in America—and the cutting of ornaments for the bills. On leaving Keimer, he had resolved, with one of his fellow-workmen, Meredith, to set up an establishment of their own. Immediately on his return to Philadelphia this design was put into execution; and from that time the prudence, industry, and perseverance of Franklin were rewarded with steadily advancing prosperity. At this time there was but one newspaper in Pennsylvania. Franklin determined to start another. The design came to Keimer's ears, and he hastened to forestall it. After a few months of unsuccessful management he was glad to hand it over to Franklin, in whose skilful hands it became both influential and profitable. In 1729 the want of paper-money was much felt in the colony, and the subject was discussed in the Assembly. Franklin published a pamphlet urging the necessity of a fresh issue; and on the passing of a bill to that effect, he was rewarded by being employed to print the money. His business was now flourishing. On the 1st of September 1730 he married Miss Deborah Reid, to whom he had been engaged on leaving America for England. He neglected her during his absence, and she married another, who soon after separated from her. Franklin found in her a faithful and prudent helpmate during a period of forty-four years. At this time he tells us there was not a good bookseller's shop south of Boston. Lovers of literature were obliged to send to England for supplies. In 1731 Franklin set on foot a subscription for a library. The scheme began with fifty subscribers, mostly young tradesmen. It prospered, like all Franklin's undertakings; and in 1742 a charter was obtained for the "Philadelphia Library Company,"—the mother of all the North American libraries, now so numerous. His command of books was now greatly increased, Benjamin and in the midst of unremitting application to business he daily devoted an hour or two to study. About this time he conceived the project (characteristic at once of the man and the age) of arriving at moral perfection, "to live without committing any fault at any time." His plan for attaining this happy result is described in his autobiography. While acknowledging that he never arrived at the perfection aimed at, he expresses his conviction that he was a better and a happier man from having made the attempt. He always intended to enlarge this scheme into a treatise, to be called *The Art of Virtue*, but never carried out his design. It was connected with an extensive project for the establishment of a universal society for the promotion of virtue. Even in his old age he does not seem to have regarded this scheme as chimerical.

In 1732 he first published the almanac which, under the name of *Richard Saunders, or Poor Richard's Almanac*, became so celebrated. Its great aim was, through choice aphorisms and proverbs, to inculcate industry and frugality, "as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue." In the almanac for 1757 these sayings were collected into a discourse, which has been often reprinted and translated into many languages, under the title of "The Way to Wealth." Its influence in Pennsylvania was thought, Franklin says, to have been considerable, and there can be little doubt that the general character of his countrymen still bears testimony to their veneration for the precepts of Poor Richard. It is to be wished that his further advice on the exclusion of "all libelling and personal abuse" from newspapers were followed with equal fidelity. In 1733 he began to study languages. He soon mastered French, so far as to read it with ease. He next studied Italian and Spanish. These he found so helpful to the acquirement of Latin, that he concluded the modern practice of studying the dead language first to be grounded on a mistake.

Franklin's merits as a citizen now began to receive public recognition. In 1736 he was appointed clerk of the Assembly, and in the following year deputy-postmaster-general of America. "I now began," he says, "to turn my thoughts to public affairs, beginning, however, with small matters." The reform of the city watch and the establishment of a fire company were his first services. In 1743 he drew up a plan for the establishment of an academy in Philadelphia. Finding obstacles in the way, he did not publish his views for some time. Six years after he was completely successful. The academy then established was the foundation of the University of Philadelphia. In 1744 he succeeded in establishing a scientific society, which, after various changes, became the *American Philosophical Society*, now the *American Academy of Sciences*. When war broke out in this year between Britain and France, the defence of the colony became a matter of serious anxiety. The governor had in vain striven to induce the Assembly (chiefly Quakers) to pass a militia bill. The practical energy of Franklin overcame the difficulty. As was his usual practice, he promulgated his views in a pamphlet, entitled *Plain Truth*, which produced an immediate effect. A public meeting held soon after 1200 persons subscribed their names as members of a voluntary defence association. The number afterwards increased to 10,000. These were speedily formed into regiments, and provided themselves with arms. To defray the expense of erecting a battery below the town, Franklin proposed a lottery; and the

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1 "He wished," says Franklin, "to please everybody; and having little to give, he gave expectations." He commends him notwithstanding as a sensible man and a good governor.

2 One of the members opposed his election in the following year. Franklin's method of gaining his goodwill indicates his acute knowledge of men. He requested the loan of a scarce and curious book from the gentleman's library, and returned it soon after with a courteous note of thanks. The lender was thenceforth his friend. "He that has once done you a kindness," adds Franklin, "will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged." Benjamin Franklin's scheme was immediately carried into execution. Franklin now began to be looked upon as a man of public importance, and in all matters connected with the militia his advice was sought by the governor and his council.

The comparative leisure afforded by the increasing prosperity of his business Franklin now devoted to scientific pursuits, for which his extraordinary ingenuity, acuteness of observation, and sound judgment, peculiarly qualified him. Whilst visiting Boston in 1746, he heard a lecture on electricity, by a Dr Spence from Scotland. He became deeply interested in the subject, and thenceforth devoted much time to electrical experiments. Shortly afterwards Mr Collinson, F.R.S., presented a glass-tube to the Philadelphia Library Company, with directions for its use. To him, in March 1747, Franklin communicated the first results of those observations and experiments which contributed so much to his fame, and ranked his name among those of great discoverers. His views on the nature of electricity, as is not unusual in such cases, were treated at first by many of the learned with comparative contempt, afterwards opposed, and finally universally accepted and confirmed. The Royal Society, in which his first observations on the identity of lightning and electricity were laughed at, in 1758 conferred on him their highest distinction, the Copley medal, and afterwards elected him into their number without solicitation and free of expense. For a particular account of his electrical experiments, see ELECTRICITY.

Anxious as he was to enjoy leisure for the pursuit of his favourite studies, he now began to be in request for public business. He was made a justice of peace, town-councillor, alderman, and representative. The latter office, he says, he was glad to accept, as, besides his ambition to be of use to the public, he had begun to tire of the discussions in which, though compelled as clerk to be listener, he could take no part, and used to amuse himself in drawing magic squares or circles, or anything to avoid weariness. Next year he was appointed with the speaker to negotiate a treaty with the Indians. In 1751 Dr Bond communicated to him his plan for the erection of a hospital in Philadelphia. Franklin took it up warmly, and it was speedily realized. In 1753 he was appointed joint postmaster-general. Under his management the American post-office flourished as it had never done before. In 1754 he attended as one of the Pennsylvanian commissioners at the congress held at Albany, to confer on the means of defence in the event of a rupture with France. Several of the commissioners came provided with plans for a union of all the colonies under one government, among the rest Franklin. His plan received the preference. It was rejected, however, by all the assemblies; and the Board of Trade, to whom it was submitted, did not think it worth recommending to the crown. The former thought there was too much prerogative in it, while in England it was thought too democratic. From this double objection Franklin argued that his plan had hit the true medium, which, if followed, would have prevented the subsequent revolution. In the following spring he rendered eminent service to General Braddock, in procuring waggons and provisions for his troops. With the ready public spirit which so marked his character, he advanced more than L1,000 of his own money for that purpose. The thanks of the assembly were voted to him on his return from this expedition.

In the disputes which for some years back had been growing ever more serious between the Pennsylvanian Assembly and the proprietaries, Franklin, as might be expected, was one of the strongest opponents of what he considered the unjust and selfish claims of the latter, and gradually came to be looked upon as the leader of the opposition. He spoke seldom, and briefly, but always to the point, and with effect. An appropriate anecdote or apologue was one of his favourite and most effective means of persuasion. About this time he introduced and carried a bill for the establishment of a voluntary militia. While the organization was going on, he undertook, on the solicitation of the governor, to place the north-western frontier in a state of defense. He soon raised a body of 560 men; and in about six weeks accomplished his somewhat difficult and dangerous commission with perfect success, erecting three wooden forts, which at the end of that time he handed over manned and armed to the charge of a military officer. On his return he was chosen colonel of the Philadelphia regiment, and received such marks of honour as gave considerable offence to the proprietors. The assembly having at length resolved to petition the king against the proprietary government, Franklin was deputed as their agent to Britain, and on the 27th July 1757 arrived in London.

Here he found strong obstacles and prejudices to contend against, the assembly and people of Pennsylvania being generally represented by the press as the selfish and refractory opponents of their rightful governors. He found that little was to be expected in the way of concession from the proprietors, while the eyes of the ministry and people of England were too intently directed to Germany (where the Seven Years' War was just going on), to heed much the rising of the little cloud that foreshadowed so great a tempest in the west. Franklin took every opportunity to dispossess the public mind of the unfavourable opinions propagated against his countrymen. Early in 1759 appeared a work entitled An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania. Though betraying a strong party bias it gave a clear view of the subject, and being written with point and vigour, produced a considerable effect. It had been composed under the direction and with the assistance of Franklin. His business, meantime, made little progress. He wished much to see Pitt, but that great statesman was then too much occupied to be accessible. Franklin's experience and sagacity were duly valued by the government. Whether or not it be true that Wolfe's successful expedition to Canada was suggested by him, it is certain that he was deeply impressed with the importance of these colonies to Britain, and was zealous in inculcating his views. In 1760, when the question of retaining them was under discussion, he wrote an able pamphlet on the subject, which probably contributed to influence the ministerial decision. In the summer of that year he visited Scotland, where he experienced a most cordial and distinguished reception, and formed a lasting friendship with some of the most eminent men then to be found in Edinburgh, such as Hume, Kames, and Robertson.

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1 Franklin was sent to borrow cannon for this battery from Governor Clinton at New York. At first the request was peremptorily refused. They met at dinner, "where there was great drinking of Madeira wine." The governor softened so far as to grant six guns. As the wine passed, his liberality expanded to ten; and before the evening closed he good-naturedly offered eighteen.

2 Some very curious specimens of these are given in his works. Sparks' edition, vol. vi., p. 100-105.

3 The principal feature of this plan (the germ of the Union) was the appointment of a president by the crown, with a grand council nominated by the colonial assemblies.

4 In this name were designated Penn's immediate successors Richard and Thomas. See PENNSYLVANIA.

5 This work has generally been attributed to him. In a letter to David Hume, printed for the first time in Sparks' edition of his works, he disowns the authorship, with certain exceptions. The real author was probably Ralph.

6 A very remarkable passage on the subject occurs in one of his letters to Lord Kames. After the revolution he was equally anxious to secure Canada to the States.

7 In the same letter to Lord Kames he says of this visit, "On the whole I must say I think the time we spent there was six weeks of the densest happiness I have met with in any part of my life." He visited Scotland again in 1771. After a delay of nearly three years, he succeeded in bringing his business to a comparatively successful termination; an act of the Pennsylvanian Assembly for raising a tax of L100,000, from which the proprietary estates were not exempted, having, under certain limitations, received the royal assent in June 1760. The principle for which the Pennsylvanians had contended was so far conceded. Some financial business still detained him. In the summer of 1761 he visited Holland and Flanders. Meanwhile his scientific pursuits were not neglected. Among other results of his ingenuity was the construction of a musical instrument (the Armonica), which was for some time very fashionable. Before leaving England he received the degree of a doctor of laws from Edinburgh and Oxford. St Andrews had conferred the same honour on him some time before. The government about the same time testified their sense of his merits by appointing his son governor of New Jersey.

On his return to Philadelphia (November 1762), he received the thanks of the Assembly, and a grant of L3000 for his services. The next public transaction in which his ability and influence were exhibited, in strong contrast to the weakness of the provincial government, was the alarming insurrection subsequent to what were called "The Paxton Murders." By his prompt and judicious interference a large body of citizens was armed, and the insurgents were persuaded to retire peaceably. Meantime the contest with the proprietaries had waxed more bitter than ever. The Assembly, exasperated beyond endurance, at length passed a series of resolutions in favour of transferring the government entirely to the crown. Franklin strongly advocated this scheme. A large majority resolved to petition the king. The petition drawn up by Franklin was signed by him as speaker, to which office he had just been chosen. At the next election of representatives, Franklin lost his seat by a trifling minority, after having held it for fourteen years without asking a vote. His party, however, triumphed in the Assembly, and to the disgust of his opponents, Franklin was appointed their special agent to defend the petition at the court of Britain. He arrived in London on the 10th of December.

Though charged with a special commission, he had instructions to use his efforts against the passing of the Stamp Act, "the mother of mischief," as in one of his letters he designated it. These efforts, though zealous and unremitting, were in vain. The question of repealing the act came before parliament early in 1766; and Franklin was summoned to give evidence on the subject at the bar of the House of Commons. His perfect knowledge of the subject in question, the clearness and readiness of his replies, and the manly dignity of his bearing, produced a profound impression on the house, and contributed much both to lighten the public estimate of himself, and to hasten the decision of parliament. In the summer of this year he visited Germany in company with his friend Sir John Pringle. At this time Benjamin Franklin seems to have studied the whole subject of the mutual relations of Britain and the colonies with much attention, and to have arrived at those conclusions which guided his future conduct in the struggle. The question was mooted about this time, whether a representation of the colonies in the Imperial Parliament might not tend to promote union. This, in Franklin's opinion, afforded the only sure basis of a permanent reconciliation. In the following autumn he visited Paris, where he was received with flattering distinction. He was introduced to the king and royal family, and made the acquaintance of the most distinguished Frenchmen of the time. He was now desirous to return to America, seeing no hope of drawing the attention of government to the object of his mission. He was detained, however, by a letter informing him of his having been appointed agent for Georgia. In the following year he received a similar charge from the state of New Jersey; and in 1770 from that of Massachusetts. His well-known views on the subject of America, and the freedom with which he was in the habit of expressing them, made him obnoxious to many of the ministers, and particularly to the colonial secretary, Lord Hillsborough. Rumours had at various times come to his ears of an intention to deprive him of his office of postmaster-general. Whether true or false, they affected him little. He was equally indifferent to the counter-reports of an intention to raise him to some more important office. The occasion of his actual dismissal from office was a transaction which, though dictated on his part by what he considered a sense of duty, subjected him at the time to the severest obloquy. In December 1772, there were put into his hands' certain letters from the governor and lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, to Mr Thomas Whately, a member of parliament connected with the government, representing the people of that province as purely factious in their opposition to the government imposts, and recommending these coercive measures which produced such mischievous results. Franklin having hitherto attributed these obnoxious measures to the home government, and expressed himself accordingly in his letters to America, thought it his duty to communicate these documents to the Assembly, whose interests they so much concerned. The Assembly petitioned the Board of Trade to remove the authors of the letters from office. Counsel was engaged on both sides, and the case came before the privy-council at a very full meeting on the 29th January 1774. The solicitor-general, Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Loughborough, conducted the defence, and made it the occasion of a bitterly sarcastic and abusive attack on the character of Franklin, who stood by apparently unmoved, while their lordships testified their satisfaction by laughter and cheers. The petition was rejected as "groundless, vexatious, and scandalous," and next

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1 Franklin's share in this controversy subjected him to special hostility. The following testimony from Thomas Penn, in a letter to Governor Hamilton, is valuable. "I do not find that he has done me any prejudice with any party, having had conversations with all, in which I have studied to talk of these affairs; and I believe he has spent most of his time in philosophical and especially in electrical matters, having generally company in a morning to see those experiments."

2 Constructed on the principle of echoing graduated tones from glasses filled in various measure with water.

3 This son, William Franklin, remained a firm royalist all his life. His opposition to his father produced a temporary estrangement; they were afterwards reunited, but the old man remembered it in his will.

4 The wisdom and moderation of his views is seen in the following passage from one of his letters about this time to Lord Kames. "America, an immense territory, favoured by nature with all advantages of climate, soils, great navigable rivers and lakes, must become a great country, populous and mighty, and will, in a less time than is generally conceived, be able to shake off any shackles that may be imposed upon her, and perhaps place them on the oppressors. In the meantime, every act of oppression will sour their tempers, lessen their love for us, and make them more disposed to commerce with them, and hasten their final revolt; for the seeds of liberty are universally sown there, and nothing can eradicate them. And yet there remains among that people so much respect, veneration, and affection for Britain, that if cultivated prudently, with a kind usage and tenderness for their privileges, they might easily be governed for ages, without force or any considerable expense. But I do not see here a sufficient quantity of the wisdom that is necessary to produce such a conduct, and I lament the want of it."

5 His lordship appears to have been particularly offended by Franklin's success with the Board of Trade in reference to Walpole's Grant. As far back as 1766 a company was formed for the settlement of a new territory on the Ohio. Mr Thomas Walpole, a London banker, was at its head, and Franklin was a leading member. Lord Hillsborough opposed their petition for a grant with great zeal, but without success.

6 In 1768 a vague overture was actually made to Franklin by the Duke of Grafton, through Mr Cooper, secretary of the treasury, but with no result.

7 How the letters were obtained has never been discovered. Benjamin Franklin was informed that his services as postmaster-general were no longer required. Though it is certain that he deeply resented the insult offered to him on this occasion, there is no good ground for assuming that it altered in any degree his views of the question between Britain and America. He had long been convinced of the hopelessness of a reconciliation. After this he had no further intercourse with the ministry; and he now resolved to return home as soon as possible. He was advised, however, to await the issue of the Congress about to be held in America. The petition of Congress to the king arrived in December. All the colonial agents, except Franklin and two others, declined to present it. Their request to be heard in support of it at the bar of the House of Commons was refused, and the petition was rejected by an overwhelming majority.

After this Franklin still occupied himself, at the solicitation of his friends Dr Fothergill and Mr Barclay, in drawing up a plan of reconciliation. It was shown to Lord Howe, and several other ministers, but the terms were considered inadmissible, and the affair dropped. Towards the end of the year he had frequent interviews with Lord Chatham, who was then preparing a bill for the settlement of the American difficulty. In reply to an insinuation of Lord Sandwich, in the debate of January 20, 1775, that great man pronounced a high eulogium on Franklin, and ended by declaring that he was "an honour not to the English nation only but to human nature!"

Having at length wound up his business in England, Franklin sailed for America, and arrived at Philadelphia on the 6th of May. He was chosen a member of Congress next day, and thenceforward he was extensively occupied in all its most important business. On the establishment of a new post-office, he was appointed postmaster-general. In March 1776 he was sent as one of the commissioners to negotiate for the co-operation of Canada, an unsuccessful journey, the fatigues of which proved seriously injurious to his health. When the question of independence came to be discussed, he was among the most emphatic in the affirmative, and was selected as one of the five to prepare the declaration. Soon after he was appointed President of the Convention appointed to frame a new constitution for Pennsylvania. The most remarkable feature in this constitution (afterwards changed), viz., a single legislative assembly, is supposed to have originated with him—this having always been one of his favourite political theories. In the futile attempt at negotiation with Lord Howe in the spring of 1776 he bore a leading part. Towards the end of the year the Congress resolved to seek assistance from the European powers, and especially France. Franklin was specially qualified for such an embassy, and though adverse to the policy of seeking foreign alliances, which he opposed in Congress, he was unanimously nominated commissioner-plenipotentiary, in conjunction with two others, to the court of France. Before sailing he put three or four thousand pounds, all the money at his command, at the disposal of Congress as a loan.

He arrived in Paris on the 21st December, and shortly after removed to the suburban village of Passy. Here he resided while in France, an object of interest and reverence to the lively citizens of Paris; adapting himself with easy tact to the national tastes and habits, while his personal peculiarities derived piquancy by contrast. To the brilliant intellectual circle with whom he associated it was specially charming to find in the scientific sage, whose primitive aspect and homely wisdom seemed fresh from antique times, not only an exponent, but a living illustration, of those wonderworking "ideas" by which the new Millennium of "Humanity" was to be achieved. His negotiation was eminently successful. The result of the campaign of 1777, to use the words of Franklin's grandson and biographer, fixed the French nation in their attachment to the infant republic." On the 6th February 1778 the treaties were signed, and on the 20th of March the American plenipotentiaries were received in due form at Versailles. The other commissioners were recalled in the following year, and Franklin was appointed sole minister-plenipotentiary of the United States at the Court of France. The heavy and important duties connected with that office he discharged for the next six years. Attempts were made more than once to have him recalled, but the value of his services was too notorious to give much weight to the charge brought against him of neglecting the interests of his country and being too subservient in his relations to the French cabinet. In addition, moreover, to his proper official work, he carried on an extensive correspondence, and was incessantly harassed by visits, proposals, and applications of the most miscellaneous character. Science, too, continued still to occupy some of his time. He frequently attended the meetings of the Academy, of which (as of the principal learned societies in Europe) he was a member; and in 1779 read a paper on the Aurora Borealis. In 1784 he was appointed to the head of the commission for inquiring into the nature of the experiments then extensively practised by Mesmer and his disciples, and by them attributed to animal magnetism. For that delusive term Franklin substituted the word imagination. His concern for the interests of science was nobly displayed in his sending, on his own authority, a circular to all the commanders of American cruisers requesting them to offer no molestation to the ship of Captain Cook. As ambassador he was much occupied in negotiating treaties with the principal European powers, a service in which his extreme foresight, tact, and firmness enabled him to secure signal advantages to his country. The provisional treaty with Britain was signed November 30, 1782, and a treaty with Sweden in the following spring. In 1781 Franklin had requested to be relieved from his office; the Congress declined to accept his resignation, but complied, on a repetition of his request in 1785. His last official act was the signing of a treaty with Prussia, containing a new article framed by himself against privateering in time of war.

On the 14th September 1785 he arrived in Philadelphia. On the voyage he had occupied himself in writing on "Improvements in Navigation," on "Smoky Chimneys," and in renewed experiments to ascertain by the temperature the course of the Gulf Stream. He was received with every demonstration of joy, and congratulations from all the public bodies. Next day he was appointed a member of the supreme executive council of Philadelphia, and soon after president of the state. Surrounded by his offspring, at the

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1 His biographers mention as a significant circumstance that he did not put on again the suit of clothes he wore on that occasion till the day that he signed the treaty with France as American plenipotentiary. 2 The following anecdote is related in connection with the signing of this important document. "We must be unanimous," Hancock said, "there can be no other different ways, we must all hang together." "Yes," replied Franklin, "we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." 3 The journal of one day (Dec. 13, 1778) records the following visits. 1. The Inventor of a wonderful self-propelling machine. 2. A proposal to levy men for a piratical expedition to Britain. 3. A plan for concealing arms, &c., on the person without suspicion. 4. Received a parcel from an unknown philosopher, who submits to my consideration a memorial on the subject of Elementary Fire, containing experiments in a dark chamber." The "unknown philosopher" was Jean Paul Marat. 4 In acknowledgment of this act of humanity a gold medal and a copy of Cook's Narrative were presented to him by the Board of Admiralty, with the king's approbation. 5 Notwithstanding Franklin's opposition to privateering, he considered his own services in this respect worthy of enumeration, in 1788, among his claims on the United States. Benjamin head of a community which looked up to him with the deepest veneration, enjoying comparative leisure for the cultivation of the pursuits which still formed his chief delight, the few remaining years of his life passed happily away, despite the gradual inroads of disease. In May 1787 he was chosen a member of the convention appointed to frame the constitution of the United States. His motion for prayers in the convention is the most remarkable record of his share in its proceedings, and affords an impressive proof of that religious feeling in which he has often, but unjustly, been regarded as wholly deficient. The conduct of the Congress, in neglecting to settle his accounts, and bestow some adequate compensation for his long and faithful services, seems to have wounded his spirit not a little. To the last he was occupied in works of usefulness and philanthropy. The improvement of the condition of the negroes, and the alleviation of the miseries of public prisons, engaged much of his attention. His last public act was to sign a memorial to Congress as President of the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania. The last paper he wrote, twenty-four days before his death, was an ingenious and spirited parody on a speech delivered in Congress in defence of slavery. For many years he had suffered severely from gout and stone. About the beginning of April 1790 he was attacked by fever, and on the 17th he expired, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He was buried with great solemnity amidst an immense concourse of people. Congress went into mourning for a month. The National Assembly of France, on the motion of Mirabeau, put on mourning for three days; and numerous other testimonies of respect were offered to his memory in the French metropolis. No monument has yet been raised to him by the citizens of Philadelphia.

America has produced men of genius and ability whose names rank high in science, literature, and politics, but no man in all respects so remarkable as Benjamin Franklin, the first of her citizens who won a European fame. Embodying as he did in a high degree those qualities which have raised the American nation to so commanding a position among modern states, his influence over the character of that race has been greater than that of any other man born in America. His most obvious characteristic was common sense, sagacity, practical wisdom in the management of affairs, whether small or great. In all things he was a man of business; and as he attempted no enterprise which his quick discernment, calculating prudence, and sound judgment did not approve as feasible, his industry, tact, and indomitable firmness crowned all his undertakings with complete success. In his private life he was the personification of frugality; but while he ever kept a steady eye to his personal interests, no man excelled him in public spirit, and his devotion to the service of his country was genuine and unswerving. Passions and affections were less strong with him than intelligence and prudence, but neither was his heart cold nor were his sympathies narrow; and though eminently worldly wise, he was not less conspicuously distinguished by zeal for the good of his fellow men. On the side of imagination, and in all that connects man with the infinite, the mysterious, and the beautiful, he was signalily deficient. Utility was to him the test of all human things and pursuits; in the world of practical life he lived and moved and had his being; and in that world reason wielded the empire over faith, and reverence shrank into littleness before the ambition of independence. Yet it would be extreme injustice to Franklin to say that his thoughts and feelings were bounded by the narrow limits of a sordid utilitarianism. His devotion to science alone would suffice to prove the opposite; for though all his researches were guided by a practical aim, if he had not loved truth for her own sake he could never have won from her such secrets as he did. As a statesman and diplomatist, he carried into the high sphere of national policy, and with similar results, those qualities which had stamped success on all his private undertakings. No Briton, indeed, can look back with admiration to that inveterate hostility of his which scurried not at devices for subjecting to the foot of foreign invaders the country that nursed his fathers and taught them how freedom may be kept or won. Yet it is but just to remember that that enmity was provoked by contemptuous rejection of long advice, and the oppression that makes wise men mad, and that its object was not the people of Britain, but the rulers for whose obstinate folly they were made to suffer. At this date, at least, it is only extreme prejudice that will deny the merit of rare felicity to the epigram of Turgot—*Eripuit celo futum sceptrumque tyrannis.*

The most complete edition of Franklin's works is that of Jared Sparks, in 10 vols. 8vo, Boston 1840, containing numerous letters and papers not included in that published by his grandson, William Temple Franklin, in 1817, London, 6 vols. 8vo.

Sir John, Rear-Admiral of the Blue, was a native of Spilsby, in Lincolnshire. Sprung from a line of freeholders, or "Franklins," his father inherited a small family estate, which was so deeply mortgaged by his immediate predecessor that it was found necessary to sell it; but by his success in commercial pursuits he was enabled to maintain and educate a family of twelve children, of whom one only died in infancy. The fortunes of his four sons were remarkable, unaided as they were by patronage or great connections. Thomas, the eldest, following the pursuits of his father, acquired the local reputation of an acute and highly honourable man of business, whose intellect gave him much influence with his neighbours, and in a time of threatened invasion, he was mainly instrumental in raising a body of yeomanry cavalry, in which he did the duty of adjutant, and was afterwards chosen to be lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of volunteer infantry. The second son, Sir Willingham, educated at Westminster, was elected to a scholarship of Christ's Church, Oxford, and after gaining an Oriel fellowship, was called to the bar, and died a judge at Madras. James, the third son, having, as cadet, exhibited great proficiency in Hindostance and Persian, was presented by the India Company with a handsome sword, L50 in money, and a cornetcy in the First Bengal Native Cavalry, in which he rose to the rank of major. He was noted while in India for his scientific knowledge, which procured him a lucrative civil appointment, but his advancement was interrupted by ill-health, and after executing extensive surveys of the country, he was under the necessity of returning to England, where he died. His collections in natural history were highly appreciated by zoologists.

John, the youngest son, and the subject of this memoir, was destined for the church by his father, who, with this view, had purchased an advowson for him. He received the first rudiments of education at St Ives, and afterwards went to

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1 The following is one of his acute remarks on that subject:—"Though there is a general dread of giving too much power to our governors, I think we are more in danger from the little obedience in the governed."

2 Sir Humphry Davy thus elegantly characterizes his scientific labours. "A singular felicity of induction guided all his researches, and by very small means he established very grand truths. The style and manner of his publications on electricity are almost as worthy of admiration as the doctrines they contain." He has endeavoured to remove all bigotry from the subject. He has written equally for the uninitiated and for the philosopher; and he has rendered his details amusing as well as perspicuous, elegant as well as simple. Science appears in his language in a dress wonderfully decorous, the best adapted to display her native loveliness. He has in no instance exhibited that false dignity by which philosophy is kept aloof from common applications; he has sought rather to make her a useful inmate and servant in the common habitations of men, than to preserve her merely as an object of admiration in temples and palaces." Sir John Louth Grammar School where he remained two years; but having employed a holiday in walking twelve miles with a companion to look at the sea, which up to that time he knew only by description, his imagination was so impressed with the grandeur of the scene that former predilections for a sea life were confirmed, and he determined from thenceforth to be a sailor. In the hope of dispelling what he considered to be a boyish fancy, his father sent him on a trial voyage to Lisbon in a merchantman, but finding on his return that his wishes were unchanged, procured him, in the year 1800, an entry on the quarterdeck of the Polyphemus, 74, Captain Lawford; and this ship having led the line in the battle of Copenhagen in 1801, young Franklin had the honour of serving in Nelson's hardest fought action. Having left school at the early age of thirteen, his classical attainments were necessarily small, and at that period there was no opportunity on board a ship of war of remedying the defect.

Two months, however, after the action of Copenhagen, he joined the Investigator, discovery-ship, commanded by his relative Captain Flinders, and under the training of that able scientific officer, while employed in exploring and mapping the coasts of Australia, he acquired a correctness of astronomical observation and a skill in surveying which proved of eminent utility in his future career. In the prosecution of this service he gained for life the friendship of the celebrated Robert Brown, naturalist to the expedition. In 1803, the Investigator having been condemned at Port Jackson as unfit for the prosecution of the voyage, Captain Flinders determined to return to England to solicit another ship for the completion of the survey, and Franklin embarked with him on board the Porpoise armed store-ship, Lieutenant-Commander Fowler. In the voyage homewards this ship, and the Cato which accompanied her, were wrecked in the night of the 18th of August, on a coral reef, distant from Sandy Cape, on the main coast of Australia, 63 leagues, and the crews, consisting of 94 persons, remained for 50 days on a narrow sand-bank, not more than 150 fathoms long, and rising only four feet above the water, until Captain Flinders, having made a voyage to Port Jackson, of 250 leagues, in an open boat, along a savage coast, returned to their relief with a ship and two schooners. After this misfortune, Captain Flinders, as is well known, went to the Isle of France, where he was unjustly and ungenerously detained a prisoner by General de Caen, the governor. Meanwhile Franklin proceeded with Lieutenant Fowler to Canton, where he obtained a passage to England in the Earl Camden, East Indiaman, commanded by Sir Nathaniel Dance, commodore of the China fleet of 16 sail. On the 15th of February 1804, Captain Dance had the distinguished honour of repulsing a strong French squadron, led by the redoubtable Admiral Linois. Lieutenant Fowler assisted the commodore with his professional advice in this action, and Franklin performed the important duty of signal midshipman. On reaching England, Franklin joined the Bellerophon, 74, and in that ship he was again entrusted with the signals, a duty which he executed with his accustomed coolness and intrepidity in the great battle of Trafalgar, while those stationed around him on the poop fell fast, and were all, with only four or five exceptions, either killed or wounded. In the Bedford, his next ship, he attained the rank of lieutenant, and remaining in her for six years, latterly as first lieutenant, served in the blockade of Flushing, on the coast of Portugal, and in other parts of the world, but chiefly on the Brazil station, whither the Bedford had gone as one of the convoy which conducted the royal family of Portugal to Rio de Janeiro in 1808. In the ill-managed and disastrous attack on New Orleans, he commanded the Bedford's boats in an engagement with the enemy's gun-boats, one of which he boarded and captured, receiving a slight wound in the hand-to-hand fight.

On peace being established, Franklin turned his attention once more to the scientific branch of his profession, as affording scope for his talents, and having made his wishes known to Sir Joseph Banks, who was generally consulted by government on such matters, he set himself sedulously to refresh his knowledge of surveying. In 1818, the discovery of a northwest passage became again, after a long interval, a national object, principally through the suggestions and writings of Sir John Barrow, secretary of the Admiralty, and Lieutenant Franklin was appointed to the Trent, as second to Captain Buchan of the Dorothea, hired vessels equipped for penetrating to the north of Spitzbergen, and, if possible, crossing the Polar Sea by that route. During a heavy storm, both ships were forced to seek for safety by boring into the closely packed ice, in which extremely hazardous operation the Dorothea was so much damaged that her reaching England became doubtful, but the Trent having sustained less injury, Franklin requested to be allowed to prosecute the voyage alone, or under Captain Buchan, who had the power of embarking in the Trent if he chose. The latter, however, declined to leave his officers and men at a time when the ship was almost in a sinking condition, and directed Franklin to convoy him to England. Though success did not attend this voyage, it brought Franklin into personal intercourse with the leading scientific men of London, and they were not slow in ascertaining his peculiar fitness for the command of such an enterprise. His calmness in danger, promptness and fertility of resource, and excellent seamanship, as proved under the trying situation which cut short the late voyage, were borne ample testimony to by the official reports of his commanding officer; but these characteristics of a British seaman, he added other qualities less common, more especially an ardent desire to promote science for its own sake, and not merely for the distinction which eminence in it confers, together with a love of truth that led him to do full justice to the merits of his subordinate officers, without wishing to claim their discoveries as a captain's right. Added to this, he had a cheerful buoyancy of mind, which, sustained by religious principle of a depth known only to his most intimate friends, was not depressed in the most gloomy times. It was, therefore, with full confidence in his ability and exertions that he was, in 1819, placed in command of an expedition appointed to travel through Rupert's Land to the shores of the Arctic Sea; while Lieutenant Parry, who had in like manner risen from second officer under Sir John Ross to a chief command, was despatched with two vessels to Lancaster Sound, a mission attended with a success that spread his fame throughout the world. At this period, the northern coast of America was known at two isolated points only, viz., the mouth of the Coppermine River, discovered by Hearne, but placed erroneously by him four degrees of latitude too much to the north; and the mouth of the Mackenzie, more correctly laid down by the very able traveller by whose name the river is now known. On the side of Behring's Straits, Cook had penetrated only to Icy Cape, and on the eastern coasts Captain (Sir John) Ross, in 1818, had ascertained the correctness of Baffin's survey, which had been questioned, and had looked into Lancaster Sound and reported it to be closed by an impassable mountain barrier. To stimulate enterprise by rewarding discoverers, the legislature established a scale of premiums graduated by the degrees of longitude.

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1 The Bridgewater, another merchantman, was also in company with the Porpoise at the time of the wreck, and narrowly escaped sharing the same fate. The master of her, however, having on the following day seen the shipwrecked vessels from a distance, proceeded on his voyage to Bombay, where, on his arrival, he reported their loss. He did not live to explain his motives to those whom he thus deserted, for the Bridgewater never was heard of again after she left Bombay. Sir John Franklin, accompanied by a surgeon, two midshipmen, and a few Orkneymen, embarked for Hudson's Bay in June 1819, on board of one of the company's ships, which ran ashore on Cape Resolution during a fog on the voyage out, and was saved from foundering by Franklin's nautical skill. On reaching the anchorage off York Factory, a large hole was found in the ship's bottom, but so far closed by a fragment of rock as considerably to diminish the influx of water. Franklin's instructions left the route he was to pursue much to his own judgment; in fact, so little was then known in England of the country through which he was to travel, even by the best informed members of the government, that no detailed directions could be given, and he was to be guided by the information he might be able to collect at York Factory from the Hudson's Bay Company's servants there assembled. No time could be more unpropitious for a journey through that land. For some years an intestine warfare had been carried on between the North-West Company, operating from Canada, claiming a right to the fur trade from priority of discovery, and holding commissions as justices of peace from the colonial government, and the Hudson's Bay Company, which, in virtue of a charter from King Charles the Second, attempted to maintain an exclusive authority over all the vast territory drained by the rivers that fall into the bay. Arrests by clashing warrants of the contending justices were frequent, might become right when the members of the two companies met, personal violence, seizure of property, and even assassination were too common, and in a recent fight at Red River 22 colonists of the Hudson's Bay Company had lost their lives. Numbers also had perished of famine in the interior owing to the contests that were carried on. When the expedition landed at York Factory, they found some of the leading North-West partners prisoners there, and learnt that both companies were arming to the extent of their means for a decisive contest next summer. Such being the state of the country, a party coming out in a Hudson's Bay ship was looked upon with suspicion by the members of the rival company, and it was mainly through Franklin's prudent conduct and conciliating manners that it was permitted to proceed; but sufficient aid to ensure its safety was not afforded by either of the contending bodies. Wintering the first year on the Saskatchewan, the expedition was fed by the Hudson's Bay Company; the second winter was spent on the "barren grounds," the party subsisting on game and fish procured by their own exertions, or purchased from their native neighbours; and in the following summer the expedition descended the Coppermine River, and surveyed a considerable extent of the sea-coast to the eastward, still depending for food on the casual supplies of the chase, and often faring very scantily, or fasting altogether. The disasters attending the return over the barren grounds, on the premature approach of winter, have been told by Franklin himself in a narrative which excited universal interest and commiseration. The loss of Mr. Hood, a young officer of very great promise, and who at the time of his death had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, was especially deplored. The survivors of this expedition travelled from their outset at York Factory down to their return to it again, by land and water, 5550 miles. While engaged on this service, Franklin was promoted to be a Commander, and after his return to England in 1822, he obtained the post rank of Captain, and was elected to be a fellow of the Royal Society. In the succeeding year he married Eleanor, the youngest daughter of William Porden, Esq., an eminent architect, by whom he had a daughter and only child, now the wife of the Rev. John Philip Gell.

In a second expedition, which left home in 1825, he descended the Mackenzie under more favourable auspices, peace having been established throughout the fur-countries under the exclusive government of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had taken the north-west traders into partnership, and was then in a position to afford him effectual assistance, and speed him on his way in comfort. This time the coast line was traced through 37 degrees of longitude from the mouth of the Coppermine River, where his former survey commenced, to nearly the 150th meridian, and approaching within 160 miles of the most easterly point attained by Captain Beechey, who was co-operating with him from Behring's Straits. His exertions were fully appreciated at home and abroad. He was knighted in 1829, received the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford, was adjudged the gold medal of the Geographical Society of Paris, and was elected in 1846 Correspondent of the Institute of France in the Academy of Sciences. Though the late surveys executed by himself and by a detachment under command of Sir John Richardson comprised one, and within a few miles of two, of the spaces for which a parliamentary reward was offered, the Board of Longitude declined making the award, but a bill was soon afterwards laid before parliament by the secretary of the Admiralty abrogating the reward altogether, on the ground of the discoveries contemplated having been thus effected. In 1828 he married his second wife, Jane, second daughter of John Griffin, Esq.

Sir John's next official employment was on the Mediterranean station, in command of the Rainbow, and his ship soon became proverbial in the squadron for the happiness and comfort of her officers and crew. As an acknowledgment of the essential service he had rendered off Patras in the "war of liberation," he received the Cross of the Redeemer of Greece from King Otho, and after his return to England he was created Knight Commander of the Guelphic order of Hanover.

In 1836 Lord Glenelg offered Sir John the lieutenant-governorship of Antigua, and afterwards of Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, which latter he accepted, with the condition that he might be allowed to resign it, if, on a war breaking out, he were tendered the command of a ship. He preferred rising in his own profession to the emoluments of the civil service. In as far as a man of independent political principles, of strict honour and integrity, conspicuous for the benevolence of his character, without private interests to serve, and of a capacity which had been shown in several important commands, was likely to benefit the colony he was sent to govern, the choice was a judicious one, and did honour to Lord Glenelg's discernment. Dr Arnold, no mean judge of character, rejoicing in the promise the appointment gave of a new era in the annals of colonial management, expressed the delight with which, had circumstances permitted, he would have laboured with such a governor in founding a system of general education and religious instruction in that distant land. Sir John's government, which lasted till the end of 1843, was marked by several events of much interest. One of his most popular measures was the opening of the doors of the legislative

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1 She died in 1825. 2 Messrs Dease and Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company, at a later period (1836-1839) completed the survey of 160 miles of coast line, lying between the extreme points of Beechey and Franklin, and navigated the sea eastwards beyond the mouth of Back's Great Fish River, proving the existence of a continuous water-course from Behring's Straits through 73° of longitude, as far eastward as the ninety-fourth meridian. 3 The sailors, with their usual fondness for epithets, named the ship the "Celestial Rainbow" and "Franklin's Paradise." Sir John Franklin council to the public; a practice soon afterwards followed by the older colony of New South Wales. He also originated a college, endowing it largely from his private funds with money and lands, in the hope that it would eventually prove the means of affording to all parties secular and religious instruction of the highest kind. At Sir John's request Dr Arnold selected a favourite pupil, the Rev. John Philip Gell, to take the direction of this institution; but much opposition to the fundamental plan of the college was made by various religious bodies, and after Sir John left the colony the exclusive management of it was vested in the Church of England, with free admission to the members of other persuasions. In his time also the colony of Victoria was founded by settlers from Tasmania; and towards its close, transportation to New South Wales having been abolished, the convicts from every part of the British empire were sent to Tasmania. Up to the period of his quitting the government this concentration had occasioned no material inconvenience, neither was there at that time any organized opposition to it. On an increase to the lieutenant-governor's salary being voted by the colonial legislature, Sir John declined to derive any advantage from it personally, while he secured the augmentation to his successor. In 1838 he founded a scientific society at Hobarton (now called the "Royal Society"). Its papers were printed at his expense, and its meetings were held in Government House. He had also the gratification of erecting in South Australia, with the aid of the governor of that colony, a handsome granite obelisk, dedicated and inscribed to the memory of his former commanding officer, Captain Flinders, to whose discoveries we owe our earliest knowledge of that part of the continent of Australia. It stands on a lofty hill, and serves as a landmark to sailors. A magnetic observatory, founded in 1840, at Hobarton, in connection with the head establishment under Colonel Sabine at Woolwich, was an object of constant personal interest to Sir John; and Tasmania being the appointed refitting station of several expeditions of discovery in the Antarctic regions, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of exercising the hospitality he delighted in, and of showing his ardour in promoting the interests of science whenever it lay in his power to do so. The lamented Dumont d'Urville commanded the French expedition, and Sir James Clark Ross the English one, consisting of the Erebus and Terror. The surveying vessels employed in those seas during that period came also in succession to Hobarton—namely, the Beagle, Captain Wickham; the Pelorus, Captain Harding; the Rattlesnake, Captain Owen Stanley; the Beagle (2d voyage), Captain Stokes; and the Fly, Captain Blackwood; all of whom, with the officers under them, received from the lieutenant-governor a brother sailor's welcome. Thus pleasantly occupied, the years allotted to a colonial governorship drew towards a close, and Sir John contemplated with no common satisfaction the advancing strides of the colony in material prosperity; but he was not destined to be spared one of those deep mortifications to which every one is exposed, however upright he may be in his conduct abroad, who is dependent for support and approval on a chief at home that changes with every party revolution. When Sir John was sent to Tasmania, England had not yet recognised as an established fact that the inhabitants of a colony are better judges of their own interests, and more able to manage their own affairs, than a bureaucracy in Downing Street, with a constantly shifting head, ill informed of the factions oligarchies that infest colonies, and of the ties that connect them with subordinate officials at home. Previous to leaving England Sir John was advised, and indeed instructed, to consult the colonial-secretary of Tasmania in all matters of public concern, as being a man of long experience, thoroughly acquainted with the affairs of the colony; and he found, on taking charge of his government, that this was a correct character of the officer next to himself in authority. Mr Montagu was a man eminently skilful in the management of official matters, but he was also the acknowledged head of a party in the colony bound together by family ties, and possessing great local influence from the important and lucrative situations held by its members, and the extensive operations of a bank of which they had the chief control. Party struggles ran high in the legislative council, and the lieutenant-governor's position was one of great delicacy, while the difficulty of his situation was vastly augmented through the practice of the officials in Downing Street of encouraging private communications on public measures from subordinate officers of the colony, and weighing them with the despatches of the lieutenant-governor. For some years, by Sir John's prudent conduct, the harmony of the colonial executive was not interrupted; but at a later period the colonial secretary, having visited England, returned to Tasmania with greater pretensions, and commenced a course of independent action, ever hostile to his chief, subversive of the harmonious co-operation heretofore existing, and thus injurious to the interests of the colony, so that Sir John was under the necessity of suspending this officer from his functions until the pleasure of Lord Stanley, then secretary of state for the colonies, was known. Mr Montagu immediately proceeded to England to state his own case, and he did it with such effect that Lord Stanley, while admitting that the colonial secretary had acquired a local influence which rendered "his restoration to his office highly inexpedient," penned a despatch which is not unjustly characterized as a consummate piece of special pleading for Mr Montagu, whom it absolves, while it comments on the lieutenant-governor's proceedings in a style exceedingly offensive to a high-minded officer who had acted, as he conceived, with the strictest regard to the public interests. The extraordinary measure was also resorted to of instantly furnishing Mr Montagu, then in attendance at Downing Street, with a copy of this despatch, so that he was enabled to transmit it to Hobarton, where it was exposed in the Bank to public inspection. At the same time there was circulated privately amongst the officers of the colonial government and others a journal of his transactions with the lieutenant-governor, and of his private communications with members of Franklin's family, which he had kept for years while on terms of close social intercourse with them. This volume having answered in England the purpose for which it was intended, was now exhibited in the colony as containing an account of the subjects on which he stated he had held conversations with Lord Stanley. All this took place before the lieutenant-governor received official intimation of Lord Stanley's decision. The recovery of a document which had lain secluded in an office in the colony enabled Sir John afterwards more fully to substantiate one of the most important charges he had made, nevertheless Lord Stanley refused to modify the terms he had employed, or to make any concession calculated to soothe the wounded feeling of an honourable and zealous officer. The arrival of a new lieutenant-governor, the late Sir John Eardley Wilmot, bringing with him the first notice of his own appointment, and consequently finding Sir John still in the colony, served to show more strongly than could otherwise have been done, the hold the latter had gained on the affections of the colonists, and the verdict pronounced on Lord Stanley's despatch by the people, to whom all the merits of the case were most fully known. Sir John, after three months' longer residence at Hobarton as a private indivi-

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1 In later years he became Sir John's son-in-law, as mentioned above.

2 Lord Stanley's despatch, 13th September 1842. Mr Montagu was promoted to be colonial secretary at the Cape of Good Hope. Sir John Franklin, dual, waiting for a passage to England, during which time he received addresses emanating from every district of the colony, was attended to the place of embarkation by the most numerous assemblage of all classes of people which had ever been seen on those shores, the recently consecrated Bishop of Tasmania walking at their head, along with the new colonial secretary, the late Mr Bicheno, who for some months had acted in the greatest harmony with Sir John. A local paper, after describing the scene in much detail, adds—“Thus departed from among us as true and upright a governor as ever the destinies of a British-colony were entrusted to.” Years afterwards, when the enthusiasm of party feelings could have no share in their proceedings, the colonists showed their remembrance of his virtues in a more substantial manner, as will be mentioned below. Sir John, on receiving the secretary of state’s despatch, had tendered his resignation, but his successor was appointed before his letter could reach England, though, as we have just said, his recall-despatch did not come to Tasmania till some days after Sir Eardley’s arrival.

Owing to the fortunate rendezvous at Hobarton of the scientific expeditions and surveying ships above named, as well as of many of her Majesty’s vessels engaged in the ordinary service of those seas, the intrigues of the family faction and their supporters in the colony being matters of common discussion, became known to numbers of Sir John’s brother officers, and a true estimate of the treatment he had received from the colonial minister was formed by the profession to which he belonged. He found, therefore, on reaching England, that the confidence of the Admiralty in his integrity and ability was undiminished, and this was speedily shown by his appointment in 1845 to the command of an expedition, consisting of the Erebus and Terror, fitted out for the further discovery of the north-west passage. With an experienced second in command, Captain Crozier, trained under Parry and James Ross from 1821 in the navigation of icy seas, a select body of officers chosen for their talent and energy, and excellent crews, in ships as strong as art could make them, and well furnished, Franklin sailed from England for the last time on the 26th of May 1845. He was last seen by a whaler on the 26th of July in Baffin’s Bay, at which time the expedition was proceeding prosperously. Letters written by him a few days previous to that date were couched in language of cheerful anticipation of success, while those received from his officers expressed their admiration of the seamanlike qualities of their commander, and the happiness they had in serving under him. In autumn 1847 public anxiety began to be manifested for the safety of the discoverers, of whom nothing more had been heard; and searching expedition after expedition despatched in quest of them in 1848 and the succeeding years down to 1854, regardless of cost or hazard, redound to the lasting credit of England. In this pious undertaking Sir John’s heroic wife took the lead. Her exertions were unrewarded, she exhausted her private funds in sending out auxiliary vessels to quarters not comprised in the public search, and by her pathetic appeals she roused the sympathy of the whole civilized world. France sent her Bellot; the United States of America replied to her calls by manning two searching expeditions, the expenses of which were borne by Mr Grinnell, a wealthy private citizen of great humanity and liberality; and the inhabitants of Tasmania subscribed L.1700, which they transmitted to Lady Franklin as their contribution towards the expense of the search. In August 1850 traces of the missing ships were discovered, and it was ascertained that their first winter had been spent behind Beechey Island, where they had remained at least as late as April 1846. Yet in spite of every exertion by the searching parties, no further tidings were obtained until the spring of 1854, when Dr Rae, then conducting an exploring party of the Franklin-Hudson’s Bay Company, learnt from the Eskimos that in 1850 white men, to the number of about forty, had been seen dragging a boat over the ice near the north shore of King William’s Island, and that later in the same season, but before the breaking up of the ice, the bodies of the whole party were found by the natives on a point lying at a short distance to the north-west of Back’s Great Fish River, where they had perished from the united effects of cold and famine. These unfortunate men were identified as the remnant of the crews of the Erebus and Terror by numerous articles which the Eskimos had picked up at the place where they perished, many of which Dr Rae purchased from that people and brought to England. Point Ogle is supposed by this gentleman to be the spot where the bodies lie; and this summer (1855) Mr Anderson of the Hudson’s Bay Company started from Great Slave Lake to examine the locality, pay the last tribute of respect to the dead, and collect any written papers that might remain there or books and journals said to be in the hands of the Eskimos. By considering the direction in which the party that perished were travelling when seen by the natives, and the small district that remains unexplored, we must come to the conclusion that the ships were finally beset between the 70th and 72d parallels of latitude, and near the 100th meridian. Two entrances from the north may exist to this part of the sea, one along the west coast of North Somerset and Boothia, which is an almost certain one; and the other, which is more conjectural, may occupy the short unexplored space between Captain Sherard Osborn’s and Lieutenant Wynnatt’s extreme points. To approach this last strait, if it actually exists, Cape Walker would be left on the eastern side of the passing ships. It is a singular and most melancholy fact, that the very limited district of the Arctic Sea thus indicated, and which was specially adverted to in the original plan of search, is almost the only spot that has defied the exertions of the skilful and persevering officers who have attempted to explore it. Sir James Ross failed in reaching it; it intervenes between the extremes of the long and laborious journeys made by Captain Sherard Osborn and Lieutenant Wynnatt. Dr Rae’s two attempts to enter it were frustrated by the state of the ice and other circumstances, and Captain Collinson was also stopped short on its southern side by the want of fuel. Lady Franklin had sent out the Prince Albert for the express purpose of searching this quarter, but Mr Kennedy unfortunately, instead of adhering to the letter of his instructions, trusted to a distant view of the passage from the north, which seemed to him to be closed, and turning to the west, made his memorable winter journey through a space which, though he was ignorant of the fact at the time, had been previously examined.

With the utmost economy in its use, fuel would soon become precious on board the Erebus and Terror; and it is probable that after three years one of the ships would be broken up to furnish this essential article. Provisions could not last longer without placing the crews on short allowance, and to do so in that climate subjected them to sure and destructive attacks of scurvy. Fish and venison, it is true, might be procured in quantities sufficient to modify these conclusions, but not to a great extent; and, beyond all question, the numbers of the intrepid sailors who left England in such health and spirits in 1845 had waned sadly by the close of the season for operations in 1849. The forty men seen by the natives early in 1850 were doubtless the only survivors at that date. Franklin, had he lived till then, would have been sixty-four years old, but no one of that age was in the number seen by the natives. Had he been then in existence, he would have taken an-

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1 The erection of Tasmania into a see was promoted by Sir John’s exertions and representations. other route on the abandonment of his ship, as no one knew better than he the fatal result of an attempt to cross that wide expanse of barren ground lying between the mouth of the Great Fish River and the far-distant Hudson's Bay post on the south side of Great Slave Lake. Who can conjecture the reason that turned the steps of the weary wanderers in that direction? Perhaps the desire of solving the long-sought problem of a north-west passage even then animated their emaciated frames, and it is certain that they did solve it, though none of them lived to claim the grateful applause of their countrymen. Later in point of time, and in a higher latitude, Sir Robert M'Clure also filled up a narrow gap between previous discoveries, and so traced out the north-west passage by travelling over ice that has in the five several years in which it has been attempted proved to be a barrier to ships. If ever in the pursuit of whales, or for conveyance of minerals, commercial enterprise endeavours to force a north-west passage by steam, the southern route, whose last link was forged by Franklin's party with their lives, will undoubtedly be chosen. And it is to be deeply regretted that the parliamentary committee in recommending the grant of public money to Sir Robert M'Clure, which his courage and enterprise so well deserved, should have omitted to mention the prior discovery made by the crews of the Erebus and Terror.

This sketch of Sir John Franklin's character and public services has been written by one who served long under his command, who during upwards of twenty-five years of close intimacy had his entire confidence, and in times of great difficulty and distress, when all conventional disguise was out of the question, beheld his calmness and unaffected piety. If it has in some passages assumed the appearance of eulogy, it has done so not for the purpose of unduly exalting its subject, but from a firm conviction of the truth of the statements. On the other hand, the writer has abstained, in the only sentences in which it was necessary to speak of opponents, from saying a single word more of their conduct or motives than strict justice to Franklin's memory demanded. Franklin himself was singularly devoid of any vindictive feeling. While he defended his own honour, he would have delighted in showing any kindness in his power to his bitterest foe; and in emulation of that spirit the preceding pages have been penned.