can cause, by which means Dr Franklin was empowered to uphold the credit of the new republic in Europe, to provide assistance for American prisoners in England, &c.

In the year 1778, our plenipotentiary also endeavoured to complete an alliance between the United States and Spain; for which especial purpose Mr Jay was sent to him by Congress as a colleague; and lord North had the mortification, in the close of the ensuing session of parliament, to apprize the house of intended hostilities from that quarter.

Dr Franklin, during the whole of his residence in Paris, was considered as amongst the most important personages of the court. When the emperor Joseph II, brother to the queen, arrived in that capital on a visit to his sister, he endeavoured, through the abbé Niccoli, to obtain an interview with Dr Franklin which should appear accidental. An appointment was accordingly made at the abbé's house; but the affair, it is supposed, becoming known, numbers of other persons continued to call on that minister at the same time, which prevented the emperor's attendance; he afterwards went, understanding they were gone; but Franklin was then gone also.

His station at this time had also its difficulties. Mr Silas Deane had been for some time recalled by Congress, for having made improper contracts with officers and others desirous of serving in the American army ; and Franklin had numerous applications of the same kind. He declares that such applications were multiplied to his perpetual torment; every post brought him numerous written solicitations, and every day numerous visitants; so that his general wish to oblige was put severely to the test, and his ingenuity frequently taxed to dispose of them. "If I could gratify all," he says, 66 or even the most of them, it would be a pleasure; but," he adds, " you can have no conception how I am harassed. All my friends are sought out, and teased to tease me. Officers of all ranks, in all

departments, ladies great and small, besides professed visiters, weary me from morning till night. If therefore you have the least remaining kindness for me, my dear friend, let this your twenty-third application be your last."

"No person however," as Dr Stuber says, "could have been found so capable of rendering effective service to the United States at the court of France as Dr Franklin. He was well known as a philosopher; and he never wholly discontinued either his experiments, or his correspondence upon philosophical subjects. His character was held in the highest estimation, and his enemies could not prevail upon him to forfeit it. He was received with the greatest marks of respect by the literary characters; and this respect was extended amongst all classes of men. His personal influence was hence very considerable. To the effects of this were added those of various performances which he published, tending to establish the credit and character of the United States. To his exertions in this way may in no small degree be ascribed the success of the loans negotiated in Holland and France, which greatly contributed to bringing the war to a happy conclusion."

One ingenious piece of this kind is entitled, "Comparison of Great Britain and America as to credit in 1777," and opens with these observations:-"In borrowing money, a man's credit depends on some or all of the following particulars:

"First, his known conduct respecting former loans, and his punctuality in discharging them. "Secondly, his industry.

"Thirdly, his frugality.

"Fourthly, the amount and the certainty of his income, and the freedom of his estate from the incumbrances of prior debts.

"Fifthly, his well-founded prospects of greater future ability, by the improvement of his estate in value, and by aids from others.

"Sixthly, his known prudence in managing his general affairs, and the advantage they will probably receive from the loan which he desires.

"Seventhly, his known probity, and honest character, manifested by his voluntary discharge of debts which he could not have been legally compelled to pay. The circumstances which give credit to an individual ought to have, and will have, their weight upon the lenders of money to public bodies or nations. If then we consider and compare Britain and America, in these several particulars, upon the question, To which is it safest to lend money?'" &c.

He then discusses the facts relating to the credit of the two countries, under these heads. Respecting frugality he says smartly" A British minister lately computed, that the whole expense of the Americans, in their civil government over three millions of people amounted to but 70,000l. sterling, and drew from thence a conclusion, that they ought to be taxed until their expense was equal in proportion to that which it costs Britain to govern eight millions. He had no idea of a contrary conclusion, that if three millions may be well governed for 70,000l. eight millions may be as well governed for three times that sum, and that therefore the expense of his own government should be diminished. In that corrupted nation no man is ashamed of being concerned in lucrative government jobs, in which the public money is egregiously misapplied and squandered, the treasury pillaged, and more numerous and heavy taxes accumulated, to the great oppression of the people. But the prospect of a greater number of such jobs by a war is an inducement with many to cry out for war upon all occasions, and to oppose every proposition of peace. Hence the constant increase of the national debt, and the absolute improbability of its ever being discharged."

We now resume our sketch of American operations. In the summer of 1780, the combined fleets of France and Spain fell in with a fleet of English merchant

ships, and carried five East Indiamen, and fifty West Indiamen, into the port of Cadiz. These vessels, besides trading commodities, had on board arms, artillery, military stores, and soldiers. A great part of a fleet bound for Quebec was also taken by American privateers on the banks of Newfoundland.

On the 11th of July, a French squadron landed six thousand troops at Rhode Island, which joined the provincial army, but acted under the command of the French count, Rochambeau. At Camden however,

on the 15th of August, lord Cornwallis attacked and dispersed a force under general Gates, of nearly two thousand men; colonel Tarleton also surprised the Americans at Catawba, and routed them with considerable loss. On the other hand, colonel Ferguson, who had been despatched by lord Cornwallis, to infest the borders of North Carolina, was killed, one hundred and fifty of his men left dead upon the field, and eight hundred taken prisoners.

But the sensation produced by these operations was trivial in comparison with another military event which occurred in the close of this year, and which Dr Franklin, with every other American patriot, felt deeply. Major-general Arnold, who was not exceeded in courage or ability by any officer in the American service, disgraced himself at this time by an act of deliberate treachery, unparalleled in the history of modern warfare. Being in command at West Point, he entered into negotiation with general Clinton, to deliver up that important post, with the troops under his command, to the British army situated on the north of the Hudson River. This point commanded the communication between the western and southern states, and would, in the hands of the British, have enabled them, in conjunction with Rodney's fleet, to turn their whole force against the French fleet at Rhode Island. This important scheme was conducted and foiled in the following manner. Sir Henry Clinton having selected major André, his ad

jutant-general, for the purpose of negotiating with Arnold, that officer was landed from a British sloop of war, in the night of the 21st of September, close by the American camp, through which he was conducted by Arnold in person, and remained there in concealment all the next day. General Arnold, having furnished him with exact returns of the troops and ordnance, now assisted to disguise him as a peasant, provided him with a horse and passport, and sent him through a remote part of the camp, to explore his way back to New York by land. He passed the out-posts of the American army in safety; but when the morning appeared, three young volunteers, who were making their way thither, examined his passport, and being suspicious with regard to its regularity, determined upon leading him to head-quarters, especially when he unwisely confirmed these suspicions by offering them a large sum of money to let him pass unmolested. Here the papers found upon him in Arnold's hand-writing (containing the latest information of what had passed in the American councils of war) decided the character of his enterprise; which however he managed to deny or disguise, until Arnold knew the fact of his being taken, and had time to escape. The melancholy fate of André is well known: general Washington, assisted by the more experienced French generals, adjudged him by a court-martial to suffer death as a spy; while such are the different interpretations of the law of honour in military matters, that the British government erected a monument to his memory in Westminster abbey; and Arnold was rewarded with the commission of a brigadier-general, a considerable sum of money*, and an annuity of £500 a year, settled upon his wife and children. It needs only to be added here, that Arnold seems to have been a man of expensive habits, that he had been accused of

* The American cruizers captured a vessel containing a copy of Arnold's letter to an agent in England, by which it appears that the purchase-money of this unquestionable traitor was 5000/.