HKB
tax laid on the colonies by an act of Parliament_" (Parton, I, 340). The letters are a protest against this plan, a protest marking the first stages of the revolution.]
[Footnote 46: The second cousin and in 1758 the wife of William Greene, the second governor of the state of Rhode Island. See Dictionary of American Biography, VII, 576-7.]
[Footnote 47: Had made a tour inspecting post offices.]
[Footnote 48: Daughter of Samuel Ward, governor of Rhode Island.]
[Footnote 49: Franklin's daughter, born 1744.]
[Footnote 50: John Franklin died in Boston, January, 1756, age sixty-five.]
[Footnote 51: Daughter of John Franklin's second wife by a former marriage.]
[Footnote 52: See discussion (including bibliographical note) of Rev. Wm. Smith in Introduction, section on "Franklin's Theories of Education."]
[Footnote 53: From an exact reprint made by W. S. Mason from a copy of Poor Richard (1758) in his collection. Lindsay Swift, in Benjamin Franklin, notes: "It may safely be said that it is the American classic par excellence, and shares with Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin the honour of having passed by translation into more other tongues than anything else thus far bearing the stamp of our national spirit" (pp. 33-4). A glance at Ford's Franklin Bibliography, 53-111, will suggest the vogue of this classic. See L. L. L.'s "The Way to Wealth: History and Editions," Nation, XCVI, 494-6 (May 15, 1913).
William Temple Franklin observes that The Way to Wealth "is supposed to have greatly contributed to the formation of that national character they [people of America] have since exhibited" (1818 ed. of Franklin's Works, III, 248).]
[Footnote 54: Stephen Potts and William Parsons were among the original members of the Junto (Writings, I, 299-300). See note on Parsons in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XXXIII, 340 (1909).]
[Footnote 55: Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-1782). See Dictionary of National Biography*, XXVII, 232-4; A. F. Tytler's *Memoirs of Lord Kames, 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1814 (2d ed.). Franklin writes an interesting letter to Kames (London, Jan. 3, 1760) affirming that he rejoices "on the reduction of Canada; and this is not merely as I am a colonist, but as I am a Briton. I have long been of opinion, that the foundations of the future grandeur and stability of the British empire lie in America; and though, like other foundations, they are low and little seen, they are, nevertheless, broad and strong enough to support the greatest political structure human wisdom ever yet erected." Concerning his recent visit to Kames in Scotland he writes, "On the whole, I must say, I think the time we spent there, was six weeks of the densest happiness I have met with in any part of my life ..." (Writings, IV, 3-7). In a letter (London, Nov., 1761) he praises Kames's Introduction to the Art of Thinking* and inquires "after your *Elements of Criticism." He also tells Kames about his plans to write an Art of Virtue (ibid., IV, 120-3). From Portsmouth, Aug. 17, 1762, he sends his farewell: "I am going from the old world to the new; and I fancy I feel like those, who are leaving this world for the next: grief at the parting; fear of the passage; hope of the future" (ibid., IV, 174).]
[Footnote 56: The Interest of Great Britain Considered?]
[Footnote 57: If ever written, not extant.]
[Footnote 58: Daughter of Mrs. Margaret Stevenson, Franklin's landlady at Number Seven, Craven Street, Strand, London. Miss Mary later married Dr. Hewson (see note 77, below).]