number of copies I had printed and sold, and to account with him for the profits." All of which Franklin, on oath, denied. The suit was not continued, as other means were found for wreaking the vengeance of the court.

The town was filled with rumors respecting the late meeting of the Privy Council. It was reported that the solicitor-general had soundly berated Franklin for the part he had taken in procuring and sending the letters. All the courtiers, Franklin was told, were enraged against him, and clamored for his punishment and disgrace. He diligently prepared to meet the coming storm.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PRIVY COUNCIL OUTRAGE.

DR. FRANKLIN was still willing to trust his cause to Mr. Bollan. That gentleman, however, now shrank from the encounter, and urged the employment of the most eminent counsel whose services could be obtained. Franklin, yielding to his opinion, placed the affair, in the usual manner, in the hands of a solicitor, who drew up a brief of formidable proportions, as though Hutchinson and Oliver were to be put on trial for offenses committed against the Assembly of Massachusetts. Passages from their letters were the only evidence to which he could direct the attention of counsel. The case seemed to admit of no other evidence that was procurable in England, and to obtain further testimony from America there was not time.

The brief being prepared, the next business was the selection of counsel. Sergeant Glynn, whose various defenses of John Wilkes had made him the most famous barrister in the world, and, in England, a popular idol, would have been promptly retained, had not an attack of the gout rendered it uncertain whether he would be able to attend on the appointed day. He was a particular friend of Arthur Lee, whom Dr. Franklin regarded more as a colleague than a successor. Lee was a frequenter of the Wilkes coterie; he was one of the company at the celebrated dinner when Dr. Johnson was entrapped into sitting at table with "Jack Wilkes ;" who won

the heart of the old tory by his roast veal and ready wit.* Glynn being out of the question, Franklin's choice fell upon John Dunning, afterward Lord Ashburton, a man of liberal politics, and of the first eminence in his profession. He was considered the ugliest man then practicing at the English bar. Wraxall says of him: "Never, perhaps, did nature inclose a more illuminated mind in a body of meaner and more abject appearance. It is difficult to do justice to the peculiar species of ugliness which characterized his person and figure, although he did not labor under any absolute deformity of shape or limb. A degree of infirmity, and almost of debility or decay in his organs, augmented the effect of his other bodily misfortunes. Even his voice was so husky and choked with phlegm, that it refused utterance to the sentiments which were dictated by his superior intelligence. In consequence of this physical impediment, he lay always under the necessity of involuntarily announcing his intention to address the house some time before he actually rose, by the repeated attempts which he made to clear his throat. But all these imperfections and defects of configuration were obliterated by the ability which he displayed. In spite of the monotony of his tones and his total want of animation, as well as grace, yet so powerful was reason when flowing from his lips, that every murmur became hushed, and every ear attentive."

Dunning, too, was the original hero of an anecdote which has since been related of almost every great pleader. Lord Eldon wrote, in his Anecdote Book: "I had, very early after I was called to the bar, a brief as junior to Mr. Dunning. He began the argument, and appeared to me to be reasoning very powerfully against our client. Waiting till I was quite convinced that he had mistaken for what party he was retained, I then touched his arm, and, upon his turning his head toward me, I whispered to him that he must have misunderstood by whom he was employed, as he was reasoning against our client. He gave me a very rough and rude reprimand for not having sooner set him right, and then proceeded to state, that what he had addressed to the court was all that could be stated against his client, and that he had put the case as unfavorably as possible against him, in order that the court might see how very satisfactorily the case against him could be answered, and,

*Correspondence of John Wilkes, iv., 824.

accordingly, very powerfully answered what he had before stated."* It was Dunning also, who, when asked how he got through so much business, replied: "I do one-third of it, another third does itself, and the remaining third remains undone."

As junior to Mr. Dunning, was employed that jovial barrister whom his companions styled "Jack Lee," and his clients "honest John Lee," a dissenter and a whig, afterwards solicitor-general under Mr. Fox. He was not the most profound of lawyers, but possessed a vigorous understanding, an admirable temper, and considerable eloquence. He was a favorite of bar, bench, and clients, and was noted for his friendly zeal in aiding and encouraging the younger members of his profession. This amiable character is assigned him even by Lord Eldon, the most unflinching of tories.

Dr. Franklin had the advantage of his opponents both in the standing and the talents of his counsel. Wedderburn, young in years, new to the London bar, of little learning and small ability, owed his rapid advancement in his profession to the favor of Lord North, of whose party he was a zealous and unscrupulous supporter in Parliament. He had what is called "a talent for invective." To say that a man has a talent for invective is to say that he has very little talent. Greediness and ill-nature sometimes enable a man of ordinary ability to startle and amaze an audience by the force of his malignant rhetoric; and this the easier, when he addresses those who are already inflamed against the object of his attack. Such a speaker has not the honorable scruples, not the sympathetic understanding, not the power to comprehend a character in its wholeness, not the self-knowledge, not the knowledge of mankind and of human life, which compel all men of minds truly superior to censure, if they censure at all, with charitable moderation. Wedderburn, like many other tories of that bad time, was subjected to a temptation too powerful for average human nature to resist. The real sinner was the System which kept a man like George III. at the head of a nation like England. Given such a man in such a place, and there will always be found Mansfields, Wedderburns, Germains, Jenkinsons, Addingtons, and Eldons to do his work and take his wages.

Mr. Dunning, upon one important point, set Dr. Franklin's mind

* Life of Lord Eldon, vol. i., Chap. v.

at rest. Before receiving the famous letters, he had bound himself not to divulge the name of the friend who brought them to him; and this promise it was now more important than ever to keep. Political ruin, and worse, awaited the man who should be known to have been instrumental in placing the letters in the hands of the agent of the Massachusetts Assembly. Mr. Dunning informed Dr. Franklin that he could not be lawfully compelled to answer the questions which Wedderburn had threatened to ask, and he would himself object to such questions being proposed. He said, however, that the evidence detailed in the brief would be of little use, because the opposing counsel would claim that the quoted passages described the condition of the province truly, and the agent of the Assembly was not prepared to disprove the assertion. Moreover, the sentiments contained in the letters which the colonists thought so atrocious, would be regarded by the Privy Council as highly judicious and praiseworthy. He advised, therefore, that the quoted passages should not be brought forward, but that counsel should confine themselves to proving that the governor and lieutenantgovernor had become odious to the people; so odious, that it was for the interest of Government to remove them. This plan of procedure was finally adopted, and the brief set aside.

A building called the Cockpit was the place at which the Privy Council were then accustomed to meet. The apartment assigned them was not larger than an ordinary drawing-room in a great house, and was built in drawing-room style. There was an open fire-place at one end, with the usual recess on each side of the chimney. A long table extended from a point near the fire to the opposite end of the room; at which the members of the Council sat, with the Lord President at the head. All other persons present stood during their sessions, no matter how protracted they might be. Petitioners, clients, counsel, old men, young men, women, all remained standing in the presence of a body which was supposed to represent the authority and majesty of the king.

On the morning of the appointed day the official world at the west end of London was all astir. Never before had there beeu such a concourse of lords in the chamber. Thirty-five members of the Privy Council attended, a number which Mr. Burke said was without precedent in his recollection. The Lord President Gower was in his place. Lord North, the Premier, was there, with most

of his colleagues. The Archbishop of Canterbury attended. Americans and members of the Opposition were present in considerable numbers: Lord Shelburne, Mr. Burke, Arthur Lee, Ralph Izard, Dr. Bancroft, and the barristers Mr. Dunning and John Lee. Israel Manduit attended on behalf of his friends, Hutchinson and Oliver. Jeremy Bentham, not yet the absent, shortsighted, shambling old man we read of, but young, alert, and eager, contrived to get into the room. Chance procured admission for Dr. Priestley also. He happened to meet Mr. Burke that morning in Parliament Street, when Mr. Burke asked him where he was going. "I can tell you where I wish to go,” said Priestley ; "to the Privy Council; but I am afraid I cannot get admission." Burke offering his assistance, they went together to the Cockpit. "When we got to the ante-room," records Dr. Priestley, "we found it quite filled with persons as desirous of getting admission as ourselves. Seeing this, I said we should never get through the crowd. He said, "Give me your arm;' and, locking it fast in his, he soon made his way to the door of the Privy Council. I then said, Mr. Burke, you are an excellent leader.' He replied, 'I wish other persons thought so too.' After waiting a short time the door of the Privy Council opened, and we entered the first; when Mr. Burke took his stand behind the first chair next the President, and I behind that next to his."

Dr. Franklin stood in one of the recesses formed by the chimney, where he remained during the session, motionless and silent. He wore the flowing wig, which was still the mode among elderly gentlemen. His dress was His dress was a uniform suit of the material then called Manchester velvet, spotted. "He stood," says an eye-witness, "conspicuously erect, without the smallest movement of any part of his body. The muscles of his face had been previously composed, so as to afford a placid, tranquil expression of countenance, and he did not suffer the slightest alteration of it to appear."

The proceedings began. First, the attending clerk read Dr. Franklin's letter to Lord Dartmouth, inclosing the Assembly's petition; next, the petition itself; then, the resolutions of the Assembly; and lastly, the letters upon which those resolutions were founded. Wedderburn, who stood in a place of honor near the right hand of the Lord President, interposed no objection, and asked none of the questions he had announced. Mr. Dunning then