The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 5. Бенджамин Франклин

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СКАЧАТЬ Dear Old Friend:—

      I received your kind letter of November 5th, and the box directed to the King is since come to hand. I have written a line to our late dear friend’s son ^{Ref. 021} (who must be best acquainted with the usual manner of transacting your affairs here), to know whether he will take charge of the delivery of it; if not, to request he would inform me how or to whom it is to be sent for the King. I expect his answer in a day or two, and I shall, when I see him, inquire how your pension is hereafter to be applied for and received, though I suppose he has written to you before this time. ^{Ref. 022}

      I hope your health continues, as mine does hitherto; but I wish you would now decline your long and dangerous peregrinations in search of new plants, and remain safe and quiet at home, employing your leisure hours in a work that is much wanted, and which no one besides is so capable of performing. I mean the writing a Natural History of our country. I imagine it would prove profitable to you, and I am sure it would do you honor. My respects and best wishes attend Mrs. Bartram and your family. With sincere esteem, I am, as ever, your affectionate friend,

       B. Franklin.

      P. S.—January 28th.—The box is delivered, according to Mr. Michael Collinson’s directions, at Lord Bute’s. I have sent over some seed of naked oats, and some of Swiss barley, six rows to one ear. If you would choose to try some of it, call on Mrs. Franklin.

      

      CCCLI. TO M. LE ROY

      London, 31 January, 1769.

      Dear Sir:—

      I received your obliging favor of November 15th. I presented your compliments to Sir John Pringle, who was glad with me to hear of your welfare, and desired me to offer his best respects whenever I wrote to you. The Farmer’s Letters were written by one Mr. Dickinson, of Philadelphia, and not by me, as you seem to suppose. I only caused them to be reprinted here with that little Preface, and had no other hand in them, except that I see some of my sentiments formerly published are collected, and interwoven with those of others, and his own, by the author. I am glad they afforded you any amusement. It is true, as you have heard, that troops are posted in Boston, on the pretence of preventing riots and protecting the custom-house officers; but it is also true that there was no intention among the people there to oppose the landing of those troops, or to resist the execution of the law by arms. The riots talked of were sudden, unpremeditated things, that happened only among a few of the lower sort. Their plan of making war on this country is of a different kind. It is to be a war on commerce only, and consists in an absolute determination to buy and use no more of the manufactures of Britain till the act is repealed. This is already agreed to by four provinces, and will be by all the rest in the ensuing summer. Eleven ships now here from Boston and New York, which would have carried, one with another, fifty thousand pounds sterling each in goods, are going away in their ballast, as the Parliament seems determined not to repeal. I am inclined to think, however, that it will alter its mind before the end of the session. Otherwise it is to be feared the breach will grow wider by successive indiscretions on both sides.

      The subject you propose to me, the consequences of allowing a free exportation of corn, the advantages or disadvantages of the Concurrence, &c., is a very extensive one; and I have been, and am at present, so much occupied with our American affairs as that, if I were ever so capable of handling it, I have not time to engage in it at present to any purpose. I think, however, with you, that the true principles of commerce are yet but little understood, and that most of the acts of Parliament, arrêts and edicts of princes and states, relating to commerce, are political errors, solicited and obtained by particulars for private interest, under the pretext of public good.

      The bearer of this, Captain Overy, is a particular friend of mine, who now only passes through Paris for Lyons and Nice, but in his return may stay in your city some time. He is a gentleman of excellent character and great merit, and as such I beg leave to recommend him to your civilities and advice, which may be of great service to him, as he is quite a stranger in Paris. With the greatest esteem and respect, I am, dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

       B. Franklin.

      P. S.—Your English is extremely good; but if it is more easy for you to write in French, do not give yourself the trouble of writing in English, as I understand your French perfectly well.

      CCCLII. TO LORD KAMES

      London, 21 February, 1769.

      My Dear Friend:—

      I received your excellent paper on the preferable use of oxen in agriculture, and have put it in the way of being communicated to the public here. I have observed in America that the farmers are more thriving in those parts of the country where horned cattle are used, than in those where the labor is done by horses. The latter are said to require twice the quantity of land to maintain them; and, after all, are not good to eat; at least we do not think them so. Here is a waste of land that might afford subsistence for so many of the human species. Perhaps it was for this reason that the Hebrew lawgiver, having promised that the children of Israel should be as numerous as the sands of the sea, not only took care to secure the health of individuals by regulating their diet, that they might be fitter for producing children, but also forbade their using horses, as these horses would lessen the quantity of subsistence for men. Thus we find, when they took any horses from their enemies, they destroyed them; and in the commandments, where the labor of the ox and ass is mentioned, and forbidden on the Sabbath, there is no mention of the horse, probably because they were to have none. And, by the great armies suddenly raised in that small territory they inhabited, it appears to have been very full of people.

      Food is always necessary to all, and much the greatest part of the labor of mankind is employed in raising provisions for the mouth. Is not this kind of labor, then, the fittest to be the standard by which to measure the values of all other labor, and consequently of all other things whose value depends on the labor of making or procuring them? May not even gold and silver be thus valued? If the labor of the farmer, in producing a bushel of wheat, be equal to the labor of the miner in producing an ounce of silver, will not the bushel of wheat just measure the value of the ounce of silver? The miner must eat; the farmer indeed can live without the ounce of silver, and so perhaps will have some advantage in settling the price. But these discussions I leave to you, as being more able to manage them; only, I will send you a little scrap I wrote some time since on the laws prohibiting foreign commodities.

      I congratulate you on your election as president of your Edinburgh Society. I think I formerly took notice to you in conversation, that I thought there had been some similarity in our fortunes, and the circumstances of our lives. This is a fresh instance, for, by letters just received, I find that I was about the same time chosen president of our American Philosophical Society, established at Philadelphia. ^{Ref. 023}

      I have sent by sea, to the care of Mr. Alexander, a little box containing a few copies of the late editions of my books, for my friends in Scotland. One is directed for you, and one for your Society, which I beg that you and they would accept as a small mark of my respect. With the sincerest esteem and regard, I am, my dear friend, yours most affectionately,

       B. Franklin.

      P. S.—I am sorry my letter of 1767, concerning the American disputes, miscarried. I now send you a copy of it from my book. The Examination mentioned in it you have probably seen. Things daily wear a worse aspect, and tend more and more to a breach and final separation.

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