Shortly after the death of Dr. Franklin, there were not wanting the usual train of literary speculators to exercise their industry in collecting his avowed productions, together with those which public rumor ascribed to his pen. These miscellanies were printed in various forms, both in England and America, greatly to the advantage of the publishers; nor did the possessor of the originals avail himself of the general avidity and the celebrity of his ancestor, to deprive those persons of the profits which they continued to reap from repeated editions of papers that have cost them nothing. When, however, they had reason to apprehend that the genuine Memoirs and other works of Franklin, as written and corrected by himself, would be brought forward in a manner suitable to their importance and the dignified rank of the author in the political and literary world, invidious reports were sent abroad, and circulated with uncommon diligence; asserting that all the literary remains of Dr. Franklin had been purchased at an enormous rate by the British ministry, who (mirabile dictu) it seems were more afraid of this arsenal of paper than of the power of France, with all her numerous resources and auxiliaries. This convenient tale, absurd as it was, found reporters both in Europe and in the United States, who bruited it about with so much art as to make many who were unacquainted with the legatee of the manuscripts, believe it to be true, and to lament feelingly, that such inestimable productions should be suppressed, and lost for ever, through the cupidity of the person to whom they were bequeathed. Provoking as the story was, the party whom it most affected, and whose interests it was designed to injure, felt too much of the conscia mens recti to do otherwise than treat the ridiculous invention with contempt, from a persuasion that the refutation of an improbable falsehood is beneath the dignity of truth. He, therefore, endured the opprobrium without complaint, and even suffered it to be repeated without being goaded into an explanation; contented to wait for the time when he might best fulfill his duty and shame his

calumniators. That period has at length arrived, and the world will now see whether an enlightened government could be weak enough to be frightened by the posthumous works of a philosopher; or whether a man of integrity, bred under Franklin, bearing his name, and entrusted with his confidence, could be bribed into an act of treachery to his memory.

"Of the present collection it remains to be observed, that the only portion which has hitherto appeared in any form, is the first fasciculus of the Memoirs of Dr. Franklin, extending from his birth to the year 1757, forming one hundred and seventy-five pages only of the present volume. But even what has formerly been printed of this part, can scarcely lay claim to originality, since the English edition is no more than a translation from the French, which of itself is a professed version of a transcription; so that the metamorphoses of this interesting piece of biography may be said to resemble the fate of Milton's epic poem, which a French Abbé paraphrased into inflated prose, and which an English writer, ignorant of its origin, turned back again under the double disguise into its native tongue.

"Admitting, however, that the small portion of the Memoir given to the world, is substantially correct in the materials of the narrative, the present publication of it must be infinitely more estimable by being printed literally from the original autograph.

"It is much to be regretted, that Dr. Frankiin was not enabled, by his numerous avocations and the infirmities of old age, to complete the narrative of his life in his own inimitable manner. That he intended to have done this is certain, from his correspondence, as well as from the parts in continuation of the Memoir which are now for the first time communicated to the world. But the convulsed state of things during the American Revolution, the lively concern which he had in that event, and his multiplied public engagements, after contributing to the establishment of the independence of his country, prevented him from indulging

his own inclinations, and complying with the earnest desire of his numerous friends. "

APPENDIX No. 8.

Preface to "Correspondance Inédite, etc., de B. By M. Charles Malo.

Franklin."

[Translation.]

"In publishing in France a complete Correspondence of Dr. Franklin, I have intended to afford the public an opportunity of enjoying the only part of the works of this celebrated man which has remained unknown to us up to this time. This Correspondence has the inappreciable advantage of being neither altered nor abridged. France, England, America, there play a part so important that I should reproach myself if I had suppressed the smallest passage of it. Franklin will be found there in this Correspondence complete and characteristic, with all that freedom of speech so piquant and so noble which he indulged toward all the courts of Europe.

"Two or three journals have announced a Select Correspondence of Franklin. It is my duty to enlighten the public on this fraudulent speculation of M. Temple (Franklin). Desirous of prejudicing the interests of French booksellers, and at the same time desperate at having been so unfortunately anticipated by the appearance of a Complete Correspondence, this gentleman had no other resource but to make a Selected Correspondence; but he has not foreseen that in reducing to one-half the work which I publish to-day in two octavo volumes, he would really give only an abridgment of it, an extract; that his boasted Selection will be but an insignificant piece of claptrap, a thing of shreds and patches. When, in fact, will the formidable scissors stop of a foreigner who is directed by considerations of self-love, and animated by local passions? In purchasing the Abridged

Correspondence' of M. Temple (Franklin), one will still not have Franklin. But let us be just. If M. Temple (Franklin) cuts up and pitilessly lacerates a Correspondence as yet entirely unpublished, and which was absolutely unknown in France, in revenge, and by an equally reasonable calculation, he is about to reproduce for the fourth time, that is to say to satiety, the 'Memoirs of the Life of Franklin,' printed at Paris, for the first time, in 1791 (one volume in 8vo., by Buisson); for the second time, in the year II. (one volume in 12m0., Rue Therese); and for the third time, in 1800 (two volumes in 8vo., by Buisson), from the English edition of Dundee.

"I owe this confidence to my readers, especially to that public which M. Temple (Franklin) appeals to, that it may be duly instructed as to the merit of the editions of which this person wishes to give France the benefit.

"Since the month of January, and by many French bookpublishers, with a competition much more formidable than the Extracts of Correspondence,' which M. Temple (Franklin) announces to-day, and to satisfy also the impatient subscribers of this Complete Correspondence, the literary gentleman charged with it has judged proper to confide to two literary men, equally known and esteemed, MM. Cohen and Breton, the translation of a certain number of sheets of the second volume.

"The style of Franklin became, as he advanced in years, less clear and less vigorous; that of his correspondents also was frequently diffuse and confused. In imposing upon himself the rule never to depart from the original in any respect, the translator has necessarily encountered numberless difficulties, and has seen himself forced to reproduce thousands of abstract ideas. By the aid of a convenient selection he might easily have been able to avoid the one, and substitute his own ideas for the others; but the glory of belittling a great man, of abridging Franklin, was reserved for one of his descendants. Ought we to inherit from one we have assassinated ?"

APPENDIX No. 9.

Extract from letter of Dr. Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, dated Nov. 2, 1789.

“You request advice from me respecting your conduct, and desire me to tell you their faults. As to your conduct, I know nothing that looks like a fault, except yr. declining to act in any public station, although you are qualified to do much public good in many you must have had it in your power to occupy. In respect to yr. writings, your language seems to me to be good and pure, and your sentiments to be generally just; but your style or composition wants perspicuity, and this I think owing principally to a neglect of method. What I would therefore recommend to you is, that before you sit down to write on any subject you would spend some days in considering it, putting down at the same time, in short hints, every thought which occurs to you as proper to make a part of yr. intended piece. When you have thus obtained a collection of the thoughts, examine them carefully with this view, to find which of them is properest to be presented first to the mind of the reader, that he being possessed of that, may be better disposed to receive what you intend for the second; and thus I would have you put a figure before each thought to mark its future place in your composition. For so every preceding composition preparing the mind for that which is to follow, and the reader often anticipating it, he proceeds with ease and pleasure and approbation, as seeming continually to meet with his own thoughts. In this mode you have a better chance for a perfect production; because the mind attending first to the sentiments alone, next to the method alone, each part is likely to be better performed, and I think, too, in less time.

"You see I give my counsel rather bluntly, without attempting

* Sparks' Works of Franklin, vol. x. p. 397.