Davy, the celebrated English chemist, himself an excellent literary critic as well as a great scientist, said: "A singular felicity guided all Franklin's researches, and by very small means he established very grand truths. The style and manner of his publication on electricity are almost as worthy of admiration as the doctrine it contains."

Science was always a diversion with Franklin, sharing with politics his interest and spare time. He was early elected to various offices in the city and province, and was finally made joint Postmaster-General of the colonies. He reformed the entire postal service of the country and made it pay. He drew up for the colonies the details of the Albany Plan of Union, which he adapted from an earlier plan. This was one of the first practical applications of the national idea later embodied in the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. He secured the transportation for Braddock's ill-fated army through Pennsylvania, and advanced the money to pay for the horses and wagons, most of which were destroyed in the battle and rout. For this outlay he was never wholly repaid.

This is only one of many illustrations of the patriotism and liberality of Franklin. His shrewdness never degenerated into meanness or sordidness. He was careful always, but generous and humane. No man was less sparing of himself or of his means when an individual or a cause that he had an interest in, needed help. When a young printer in London, he loaned his money freely to his friends. He advanced nearly his entire fortune to pay for the transportation of Braddock's army, and before leaving for France he loaned Congress all the ready money he could get together.

In 1757 Franklin entered upon the diplomatic and political career which was to engage most of his attention

until the end of his life. For eighteen years he was almost continuously in England; first, as representative of Pennsylvania in the controversy between that province and the proprietors; and second, as agent of Pennsylvania and several other colonies in opposing the Parliamentary taxation of America that led to the Revolution. He won his first diplomatic victory when he succeeded in establishing the right of the Pennsylvania Assembly to tax the estates of the proprietors. He was the ablest of all the American. advocates of the principle of "no taxation without representation." His famous contemporary, Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was by nature a lover of liberty, but by his prejudices an ardent Tory, called Franklin," the master of mischief." During all the period of agitation preceding the Revolution, he was conservative, hoping to the end for a compromise that might prevent the separation of England and the colonies. He even incurred the temporary hostility of his country by advocating the acceptance of the Stamp Act, after he had exhausted every means at his command to prevent its passage. His vigorous and effective opposition to the various measures of Parliament for the taxation and coercion of the Americans finally made him so unpopular with the British government that he felt his usefulness in England to be at an end, and so sailed for home in 1775. Finding on his arrival that the die had already been cast by the conflicts at Lexington and Concord, he threw himself heart and soul into the struggle for independence.

Much of Franklin's work for the colonies as their agent in England was accomplished by his writings. When he first went to London he wrote a letter, which attracted considerable attention at the time, satirizing the party that wished to make peace with France; and he was the principal author of the pamphlet that argued success

fully for the retention of Canada at the close of the French and Indian wars. Between 1765 and 1775 he wrote some thirty articles attacking the government's attitude toward America. Two of these were satires in his best vein. One he called Rules by which a Great Empire May Be Reduced To a Small One. He addressed some twenty rules to all ministers charged with the management of dominions so extensive as to be troublesome to govern, and advocated as the best means of reducing such an empire, the line of conduct England was pursuing with America. The other satire he named An Edict of the King of Prussia. It purported to be a decree of the King of Prussia declaring that England was a colony of Prussia, that the island had been originally settled by emigrants. from Germany under Hengist, Horsa, and Hella, that it had flourished for ages under Prussian tutelage, and that only recently the King of Prussia had been compelled to assist his British subjects against France. The edict added that the English colony for years had not contributed properly to the expense incurred in its defense. Therefore it was decreed that taxes and commercial restrictions should be laid on all English exports and imports. The decree went on to describe in detail measures exactly similar to those of which the Americans were complaining.

The success of these pieces was great. Franklin relates that he was one of a group of public men visiting at a country house when the newspaper containing the Edict was received. One of the gentlemen, who usually looked over the mail early, came running into the room where the others sat, and shouted, "Here! here's news for ye! Here's the King of Prussia claiming a right to this kingdom!" An excited discussion followed. One of the group said he had no doubt Frederic was even then

on his way with a hundred thousand men to make good his proclamation. It was not for some minutes that anyone saw through the jest.

This was not the only time that Franklin's humor proved too subtle for great minds. Later in life he wrote a Biblical paraphrase that deceived at least one eminent scholar. Pretending to think that he could improve on the language and style of the King James' version of the Bible, he parodied a part of the first chapter of Job, making it a satire on monarchical government. No less Iskilled a critic than Matthew Arnold was so deceived by this clever bit of irony that he wrote of his relief at finding Franklin's usual common sense so far deserting him as to make him think he could improve on the matchless style of the standard version of the Bible story.

Perhaps the best illustration, however, of Franklin's skilful use of satire as a weapon is a letter that he had printed purporting to be written by a petty German prince to the commander of the troops he had sold to England for the war against the Americans. Franklin makes the writer say in part:

"I am about to send you some new recruits. Don't economize them. You did right to send back to Europe that Dr. Crumerus, who was so successful in curing dysentery. That disease makes bad soldiers. One coward will do more mischief in an engagement than two brave men will do good. Besides, you know that they pay me as killed for all who die from disease, and I don't get a farthing for runaways. My trip to Italy, which has cost me enormously, makes it desirable that there should be a great mortality among them. You will say to Major Maundorff that I am not at all content with his saving 345 men, who escaped the massacre at Trenton. Through the whole campaign he has not had ten men

killed in consequence of his orders. Finally, let it be your principal object to prolong the war and avoid a decisive engagement on either side, for I have made arrangements for a grand Italian opera, and I do not wish to be obliged to give it up."

After serving on the committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence and on several important commissions, Franklin was chosen, in 1776, as one of three commissioners to secure the support of the French government for the American cause. Already a member of every important learned society of Europe, Franklin was received in Paris as one of the very greatest men of the age. His simplicity of dress and manner, his supreme good taste and apparent humility, won the friendship of the French nobility for the cause of liberty. To the people he was the apostle of freedom and its exemplar. They named him Bonhomme Richard. His maxims of Poor Richard, published under the title of The Way to Wealth, became a text-book for the French schools. When he appeared on the streets of Paris, "his dress, his wigless head, his spectacles, his walking-stick, and his great fur cap," became at once the center of attraction. Crowds followed him, and his appearance in public places was greeted with applause. Franklin wrote to his daughter that so many pictures, busts, and prints of him had been spread abroad as to make her "father's face as well known as the moon, so that he durst not do anything that would oblige him to run away, as his phiz would discover him wherever he should venture to show it."

Franklin had the wisdom to make the most of this personal popularity for the interest of his country. He took up his residence in Passy, a quiet suburb of Paris, in the house of a French gentleman, through whose influence at court he was able to communicate with the