FIRST ENTRANCE INTO PHILADELPHIA.

I have entered into the particulars of my voyage, and shall, in like manner, describe my first entrance into this city, that you may be able to compare beginnings so little auspicious with the figure I have since made.

On my arrival at Philadelphia, I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come by sea. I was covered with dirt; my pockets were filled with shirts and stockings; I was unacquainted with a single soul in the place, and knew not where to seek a lodging. Fatigued with walking, rowing, and having passed the night without sleep, I was extremely hungry, and all my money consisted of a Dutch dollar, and about a shilling's worth of coppers, which I gave to the boatmen for my passage. As I had assisted them in rowing, they refused it at first; but I insisted on their taking it. A man is sometimes more generous when he has little, than when he has much money; probably because, in the first case, he is desirous of concealing his poverty.

I walked towards the top of the street, looking eagerly on both sides, till I came to Market Street, where I met with a child with a loaf of bread. Often had I made my dinner on dry bread. I inquired where he had bought it, and went straight to the baker's shop, which he pointed out to me. I asked for some biscuits, expecting to find such as we had at Boston; but they made, it seems, none of that sort at Philadelphia. I then asked for a threepenny loaf. They made no loaves of that price. Finding myself ignorant of the prices, as well as of the different kinds of bread, I desired him to let me have threepenny-worth of bread of some kind or other. He gave me three large rolls. I was surprised at receiving so much: I took them, however, and, having no room in my pockets, I walked on with a roll under each arm, eating a third. In this manner I went through Market Street to Fourth Street, and passed the house of Mr. Read, the father of my future wife. She was standing at the door, observed me, and thought, with reason, that I made a very singular and grotesque appearance.

I then turned the corner, and went through Chestnut Street, eating my roll all the way; and, having made this round, I found myself again on Market Street wharf, near the boat in which I arrived. I stepped into it to take a draught

of the river water; and, finding myself satisfied with my first roll, I gave the other two to a woman and her child, who had come down with us in the boat, and was waiting to continue her journey. Thus refreshed, I regained the street, which was now full of well-dressed people, all going the same way. I joined them, and was thus led to a large Quakers' meetinghouse near the market place. I sat down with the rest, and, after looking round me for some time, hearing nothing said, and being drowsy from my last night's labor and want of rest, I fell into a sound sleep. In this state I continued till the assembly dispersed, when one of the congregation had the goodness to wake me. This was consequently the first house I entered, or in which I slept, at Philadelphia.

In a day or two he engaged to work with a printer by the name of Keimer, and soon by his industry and frugality accumulated a little money. A letter which Franklin had written to a friend having fallen under the notice of Sir William Keith, the Governor of the Province, he invited the young printer to his house, and finally persuaded him to go to London to better his fortunes, promising to give him letters of recommendation. Franklin set sail from Philadelphia, the governor promising to send the letters to him when the ship should reach Newcastle; but he was faithless to his promise, and Franklin landed in London, of course, a perfect stranger. But a gentleman, a fellow-passenger by the name of Denham, was interested in him, and very soon he obtained a situation in a printing house in Bartholomew Close, where he worked a year. He soon gained a high character for temperance and industry among his fellow-workmen, and began to be favorably noticed, when he was persuaded by his friend Denham, who was about to return home with a large quantity of goods which he had purchased, to accompany him and aid him in his store. He landed at Philadelphia on the 11th of October; but soon after the store was opened with every prospect of success, Denham died, and Franklin was left once more to the wide world. He therefore returned to his old business, and was soon so successful in it that, in conjunction with a Mr. Hugh Meredith, he bought out the "Pennsylvania Gazette," which had but recently been established,' and which in a few years proved very profitable to him. In connection with the paper, he soon opened a stationer's shop, and so prospered that in September,

Franklin and Meredith began the paper with No. 40, September 25th, 1729, but in a year the partnership was dissolved, and Franklin had the sole management of it.

1730, he married Miss Read, with whom he had been acquainted before he went to London.

Feeling the want of good books, he started the plan of a subscription library-obtained fifty subscribers, "mostly young tradesmen," who paid forty shillings each-imported the books, and thus laid the foundation of the present "Library Company of Philadelphia," now the third in size in the United States.

At this time, when about twenty-six years of age, he drew up a series of resolutions by which he might regulate his conduct, govern his temper, and improve his whole moral man, and it is but justice to say that in the main he conformed to them; that the result was a character that, for evenness of temper, solidity of judgment, honesty of purpose, and prudence in the regulation of all temporal affairs, has rarely been equalled. In 1732 he first published his celebrated Almanac (commonly known as "Poor Richard's Almanac"), under the assumed name of Richard Saunders. Besides the usual tables and calendar, it contained a vast fund of useful information, and "proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality." It had great success, and was continued for about twentyfive years. In 1736 he was chosen clerk of the General Assembly, and the next year post-master at Philadelphia. He now interested himself in all public matters, founded the American Philosophical Society, and the University of Pennsylvania, and was foremost in all enterprises calculated to promote good morals, sound learning, and the public weal.

At the age of forty-three he was elected a member of the Assembly, and the next year was appointed a commissioner for making a treaty with the Indians. About this time he began to be interested in those philosophical experiments which have made his name so celebrated throughout the scientific world. But he was soon diverted from them by the demands made upon his time by the public, who seemed to think that no project for the public good deserved to be supported, unless Franklin was interested in it. Accordingly, he felt it his duty to aid, by his influence, the plan of founding a Hospital, which had been started by his friend, Dr. Thomas Bond, and he soon had the satisfaction of seeing the subscriptions completed, and a grant of £2,000 made by the Assembly for the establishment of the same.

In 1757 he was appointed postmaster-general for America, and the same year received from Harvard and Yale Colleges the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Previous to this, in 1755, at the breaking out of the French war, he had been of great service in procuring supplies for Braddock's army, and had warned him against the enemy he

had to contend with; and after his disastrous defeat, he had labored successfully in putting Pennsylvania in a good state of defence. About this time he published his letters on electricity, of which, says Priestley, "nothing was ever written on the subject more justly applauded; all the world was full of admiration." The Royal Society of London elected him a "Fellow," and when he was in that city' the most distinguished men of the metropolis, and from the continent, hastened to pay their respects to him.

After his return from England, he travelled, in 1763, throughout the northern colonies, to inspect and regulate the post-offices, performing a tour of about 1600 miles. But the controversy between the "Proprietors" and the people of Pennsylvania was not yet ended, and it being deemed necessary to take at once from the foreign landholders the chief appointing power, Franklin, in 1764, was sent a second time to England, with a petition for a change in the charter. But now all local differences were to be forgotten in the general contest that was approaching. The famous "Stamp Act" had been passed by the British ministry, and loud remonstrances from the colonies were at once echoed back to the "fatherland." In order to obtain fuller and more accurate information respecting America, the party in opposition to the ministry proposed that Franklin should be interrogated publicly before the House of Commons. Accordingly, on the 3d of February, 1766, he was summoned to the bar of the House for that purpose, and he cheerfully obeyed the call. Independent of the weight of his preestablished reputation, he possessed in a very eminent degree all those natural endowments and acquired attainments, which would make his examination most honorable to himself and serviceable to his country. The dignity of his personal appearance, and the calmness of his demeanor, equally unmoved by the illusions, and undismayed by the insolence of power, added not a little to make the whole scene highly imposing, and indeed morally sublime;-to see a solitary representative from the then infant colonies, standing alone amid the concentred pomp and the pageantry, the nobility and the learning of the mightiest kingdom of the earth, with the eyes of all gazing upon him, and acquitting himself so nobly as to call down the plaudits even of his enemies. The result might have been anticipated: for

He went on a public mission to reconcile the difference between the Governor, who was appointed by the heirs of William Penn, and the Province, the former contending that their estates should not be taxed, even for the common defence. Franklin espoused the cause of the Province, and was successful with the ministry, who decided that all landholders, without exception, should bear a just proportion of the public burdens.

such was the impression he made upon Parliament, that the Stamp. Act was repealed.

Immediately after his return, he was elected a member of Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia, and was one of its most efficient members. After signing the Declaration of Independence, he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to France, and he sailed for Paris near the close of the year 1776, where he was received most cordially by all classes. As we had not been successful in the campaign of 1776-7, the French were loth to enter into an alliance with us; but when they heard of the surrender of Burgoyne's army in October, 1777, and other successes on our part, seeing that we could "help ourselves," they concluded to help us, and entered into an alliance, offensive and defensive, with us. With the exception, however, of the services of Marquis de la Fayette, and, perhaps, of that portion of the French fleet before Yorktown, at the capture of Cornwallis, that nation was of little use to us in our revolutionary struggle; and it is well it was so that the work of independence was mainly our own.

In 1785 Franklin returned to Philadelphia, and his arrival was signalized by every demonstration of public joy. From public assemblies of every description he received the most flattering and affectionate addresses, all testifying their veneration for his character, and their deep sense of the services he had rendered his country. He was not, however, permitted to pass the evening of his days in retirement. He was soon made governor of Pennsylvania, and then elected delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787 for framing the Constitution of the United States; and in the discussions upon it he bore a distinguished part. After the dissolution of the convention, he did but little, as the infirmities and sufferings, incident to his age, with which he had long been afflicted, seldom allowed him freedom from acute bodily pain. He drew up, however, and published" A Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks," and his last public act was to sign, as president, a memorial from the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania to Congress; while the last paper that he wrote was on the same subject-thus beautifully closing a long life of distinguished usefulness as a citizen, a philosopher, and a statesman, in the cause of philanthropy. Although his malady and his sufferings continued, yet no material change in his health was observed till the first part of April, 1790, when he was attacked with a fever and a pain in the breast. The organs of respiration became gradually oppressed; a calm lethargic state succeeded; and on the 17th (April, 1790), at eleven at night, he quietly expired. The strong and distinguishing features of Dr. Franklin's mind were sagacity, quickness of perception, and soundness of judgment. His