complete is the success of this office, that even the New Zealand Colony, founded in a great degree by a powerful body of ardent reformers of Colonial policy, has accepted an arbitrary constitution to begin their young British empire upon in the Southern Ocean. It does not however require the gift of second sight to perceive that this crown colony is destined to be one of the first scenes of the early coming struggle for a return to our ancient principle of free colonial government.

We cannot stop to trace the arts by which the Colonial Office has succeeded by playing parties against each other so as to derive aid from all-from Tories, Whigs, and Radicals,nay, even from religious and philanthropic bodies, although their leaders have long been thoroughly convinced of the iniquity of the system. It is enough to justify a call for reform, that the results in modern colonies are general discontent among the whites, and ruin to the aborigines, abroad; and at home, prodigality in the place of the economy, which for the most part prevailed in managing the affairs of the old free colonies.

These evils must in existing circumstances be remedied by very different measures from those which saved the old colonies. Forming one block of territory, and inhabited chiefly by one nation, they were able to combine in order to resist by fighting; whilst, on the contrary, the misgoverned colonists of modern times are separated from each other by oceans, and by various manners and languages, so that, happily, military combination for such a purpose is impossible. But resistance of another character is in our power; and vigorous, judicious discussion in every possible form, with bills and other proceedings in parliament, and private enterprises of various kinds, cannot fail of beneficial effects.

The writings of Franklin are invaluable in aid of such efforts. They furnish ample materials for perfectly appreciating the state of colonial affairs before the American war; and as the principles which then influenced the government in its erroneous course are now struggling hard for the mastery, a review of the affairs traced in these writings, and of the mischievous principles which the author resisted, will serve both to recommend what was good in times past, and to justify the call for changes of what is at present notoriously evil. The attentive study of them will serve to promote the success of British colonial enterprise, which is opening a career more brilliant than ever, and it is a worthy task to give to that enterprise its just issue, by correcting the errors of the government, which has too much impeded, and even attempted to stop, what it should have merely guided and duly controlled.

It is no new thing to look upon Franklin's genius and cha

racter as of weight in the greatest civil questions. Two and twenty years ago the American minister in London, Mr. Rush, was told by one who turned out to be in the secret, that in the next Quarterly Review,' an article on Franklin was to be the medium of an attack upon the United States. It would disparage the people, and underrate their resources, in order to lower their reputation in Europe. To this end it would be translated into French, republished in Paris, and thence be widely circulated. Finally, the article was already known to persons who stood high in England, and countenanced by them.*

We proceed to make a different use of the works of this' great philosopher, economist, and statesman,' first describing the contents of this edition without repeating the common and well known incidents of his life, and only glancing at his scientific and moral productions with which the world is sufficiently familiar.

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To the autobiography, which was first published many years ago, Mr. Sparks has added an original memoir, with the design to touch briefly upon all the principal events in the life of Franklin from the time his own narrative breaks off, according to the method adopted by him in his memoir of himself, and not to write an essay on his genius and character, nor an historical account of his discoveries as a philosopher, and his achievements as a statesman and moralist.'-Vol. i., p. 538. This original memoir, and a few miscellaneous pieces besides the autobiography, fill the first volume of the collection. The whole of the remaining nine volumes contain well authenticated writings of Dr. Franklin except the third, the greater part of which is devoted to the History of Pennsylvania, and that production after being thought for eighty years to be from his pen, now appears from his own positive testimony, in a lately discovered and interesting letter to David Hume, to have been mainly written by another person. The second and fourth volumes contain political and historical papers; the fifth, important political tracts; the sixth, papers and letters on numerous philosophical subjects; and the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth volumes contain correspondence, concluding with conveniently arranged indexes of the whole collection.

The new writings of Franklin in this edition are-some of the essays, and many letters. Of the former, it will be a sufficient notice to quote their titles in the order of their dates. They are curious illustrations of the variety of his pursuits, and the activity of his mind. 1732. New Translation of the Lord's

* A Residence at the Court of London, by Richard Rush, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America, from 1817 to 1825. London. 1833. p. 276.

Prayer. 1745. On Perspiration and Absorption; and the Motion of the Blood in the Heart. On the Circulation of the Blood. Conjecture as to the Cause why Ships in crossing the Atlantic have longer passages in sailing westward than in sailing eastward. 1747. North-east Storms. Origin of Springs in Mountains; Petrified Shell in the Apalachian Mountains. Observations on a Tariff. Experiments on the Culture of Grass. A Conjecture as to the cause of Heat of the Blood in Health, and of the Cold and Hot Fits of some Fevers. 1750. Reasons why North-east Storms begin at the South. Inquiries respecting the mode of Planting Hedges. 1751. Remarks on Husbandry. 1752. Remarks on Mr. Colden's Theory of Light. 1753. On the Mode of Coating Electrical Jars. Transit of Mercury in 1753. Properties of Water on Smeaton's Air Pump. 1763. Congelations of Quicksilver. 1768. Petition of the Letter Z. 1772. On the Security of the Powder Magazines at Purfleet. Description of Cauton's Apparatus. Some Directions for Drawing Tones from the Glasses of the Armonica. 1773. The Wholesomeness of

Manufacturing Establishments. Moist Air not unhealthy. Torpedo Magnetic Needle. Electrical Machine. 1774. Answers to Questions on Philosophical Subjects. Experiment to show that Electricity does not pass through a perfect vacuum. Description of an Instrument for taking down Books from high

shelves.

1786.

The familiar letters, amounting to many hundreds, written by and to Franklin, constitute a very valuable part of this edition. Of these letters, Mr. Sparks published a small volume seven years ago; but 509 now appear for the first time in print. The most important of them, and the most valuable of the other original materials, are described by the editor in the following terms, which are quoted partly for the sake of the anecdotes, but chiefly in order to suggest that further inquiry in England may produce similar materials still wanted to complete Franklin's political and personal history.

'The autobiography of Dr. Franklin, as he wrote it,' says Mr. Sparks, first appeared in his grandson's edition. Many other valuable papers, particularly his official correspondence during his residence in France, and numerous private letters, were printed from the original manuscripts. Of the philosophical and political papers, the work comprised only a selection from those that had already been printed. It was first published in three quarto volumes, and afterwards in six volumes octavo. Some time before this edition was put to press in London, another was begun by William Duane, in Philadelphia. Three or four volumes were already printed when William Temple Franklin's proposals were issued. Subsequently he and Mr. Duane entered into an arrangement by which both were to have the use of

all the materials, and the two works were to be published simultaneously in England and the United States. The Philadelphia edition, in six octavo volumes, includes many philosophical and political papers, and some letters which are not found in the London edition; and it has recently been reprinted with some additions in two volumes of the royal octavo size.

There has also been published at Paris, in two small volumes, a selection from Franklin's writings in Spanish, translated from the French by Mangnio.

In the volumes now presented to the public, it has been the editor's design to make a complete collection of the writings of Franklin as far as they are known to exist, and to add such occasional notes and explanations as he supposed would be in some degree useful to the reader. The previous collections have been examined, and every piece contained in them has been inserted, except a few which the editor was convinced by competent evidence were not written by Franklin. Moreover, a careful search has been made in all the printed books, magazines, pamphlets, and newspapers, in which it was deemed probable that any of the author's writings would be found in the form of essays, political tracts, or letters. By this research, the mass of materials from printed sources has been considerably enlarged. Seven years ago the editor published a small volume of Franklin's Familiar Letters,' which were then nearly all printed for the first time, and to which were added several original papers. The entire contents of that volume are embraced in the present work. In short, no printed paper has been omitted which is known to have been written by Franklin.

The editor has been fortunate, also, in obtaining manuscript materials. His researches, as well in the public offices of London and Paris as those of the United States, and in many private collections, while he was preparing the Life and Writings of Washington' for publication, brought into his hands numerous original and unpublished letters of Franklin, of which he has availed himself in this work. But he has been mainly indebted to individuals who, with a liberality demanding the warmest acknowledgment, have readily contributed such original papers as they possessed.

In the library of George the Third, presented to the British nation by George the Fourth, is a manuscript volume consisting of a correspondence between the Rev. Dr. Cooper, of Boston, Dr. Franklin, and Governor Pownal, for several years immediately preceding the Revolution. The history of this volume is curious. Immediately after the affair at Lexington, the town of Boston was surrounded by American troops, and all intercourse with the country was cut off, except by permission of the British commander; and no person was allowed to pass the lines without being searched. Among the principal men in the town who were friendly to the cause of the people, was Dr. Cooper, a man distinguished for his abilities and for the influence he had exercised by his pen and the weight of his character in opposition to the British claims. With others, he obtained a passport to leave the

town. At this time he had in his possession a number of original letters from Dr. Franklin and Governor Pownall, and the drafts of his answers, all of which had an immediate bearing on the controversy between the two countries. Being unwilling to destroy or lose these papers, and apprehensive that they would be taken from him if he attempted to convey them through the lines, he determined to leave them behind in the hands of a confidential friend, with directions to forward them together in a parcel, and send them to Mr. Jeffries, who was then confined to his bed by sickness, and unable to leave the town. These papers Mr. Jeffries deposited in a trunk, which contained other things of his own. As soon as Mr. Jeffries recovered, he likewise went into the country. In the meantime, his son, Dr. John Jeffries, adhering to the side of the loyalists, did not choose to accompany his father, but remained in Boston; and his father left many things in his charge, and among others, the above-mentioned trunk, either not knowing, or forgetting that it contained the treasure belonging to his friend. This trunk was nearly a year in the possession of Dr. Jeffries before he examined its contents, when, upon the evacuation of Boston, collecting his effects in order to embark with the British troops for Halifax, he accidentally discovered the packet of letters, and took it with him. From Halifax he carried it to London, and presented it to a Mr. Thompson, who sent it to the king, with an explanation of the particulars, the substance of which is here given. The original papers are bound in one volume, and a copy of the whole was procured in the king's library by Mr. Richard Biddle, the able and ingenious author of the Memoirs of Sebastian Cabot,' who has obligingly entrusted it to the judgment of the editor. The letters of both Dr. Franklin and Dr. Cooper thus furnished, are among the best original materials in the present edition.'

Another source supplied large portions of the new matter of these volumes; but it appears from Mr. Sparks' preface, that much is still wanting to make the collection complete.

'Although,' he says, 'he has spared neither labour nor expense in his endeavours to make this edition a complete collection of the writings of Franklin, yet he is constrained to say, in justice to the memory of the author, that he has been less successful than he could have wished. Many papers known to have once existed, he has not been able to find. Of this description are numerous letters to his son, written before the Revolution, and also his letters during a long course of years, to his daughter and his son-in-law, a very few of which have been preserved. Again, his entire correspondence with the Assemblies of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia, while he was agent for those colonies in England, has hitherto eluded the most vigilant search. It is possible that other writings may yet be brought to light which may afford some future editor the means of more entire success.' -Vol. i., Preface.

A considerable number of the letters, now first published, are of great interest. These are the familiar and frequent epistles