LETTER FROM SIR CHARLES WYVILL, IN ANSWER TO THE

SIR,

FOREGOING.

Paris, June 17, 1785.

I have received the honor of your letter of the 16th instant, accompanied with a paper, in which you have proved, by a short train of clear and satisfactory reasoning, that the elective franchise now enjoyed by the small boroughs in England, is not an absolute right, which can only be forfeited on condition of misusage, but that it is a privilege conferred upon them in different periods of our history with partiality, and in a manner injurious to the common right of representation; and consequently, that it is a privilege justly resumable by the state, without the consent of such boroughs previously obtained, without any previous proof of their delinquency, or any compensation for their abolished franchise: at the same time, you have admitted the expediency, in the present state of our constitution, and under the various disadvantages attending an attempt to restore it, that a pecuniary offer should be proposed, as an inducement to the small boroughs, to make a voluntary surrender of their obnoxious privilege.

Accept, sir, my best thanks for this very kind communication of your sentiments on a subject of much importance to the happiness of England. From their own intrinsic solidity, those sentiments must have great weight with every unprejudiced mind, even if it should not be thought advisable to apprise the public. They are the sentiments of a man to whose ability and persevering virtue the American States are principally indebted for their political salvation. But highly as I esteem the wisdom of your opinion and advice, I place a still higher value on that philanthropy which has induced you to bestow so much attention on this subject, in the midst of your many urgent avocations, when just on the point of leaving Europe to return to America; I consider this not only as a mark of your general benevolence, but as a proof that your peculiar good-will to England, lately our common country, has neither been diminished by any personal disgust, nor impaired by the hostilities of an unhappy civil And I trust that, on this occasion, your benevolence has not been misplaced; since the advocates for a reformation of the English parliament have been, I believe, without exception, zealous opponents of the American war; and the success of their attempt to improve the constitution of England, may possibly conduct our two countries, in due time, to that modified reunion

war.

which recent events will admit, and which you seem to agree with me in thinking would be equally honorable and advantageous to both.

I am, with the highest respect, your obliged and most obedient servant,
C. WYVILL..

MILITIA PREFERABLE TO REGULAR TROOPS.

Abbé Morellet's Questions and B. Franklin's Answers.

Je prie Monsieur Franklin de vouloir bien répondre aux questions suivantes by a yes or no.

Croit-il que les Etats Unis puissent dans la suite et après leur indépendance reconnue se passer de troupes régulières toujours sur pied?—Yes.

Feront-ils mieux de n'avoir que des milices nationales?-Certainly.

Des milices coûteront-elles moins cher à l'état ou plutôt à la nation; car ne peut-on pas dire que dans un état de choses où tous les citoyens doivent s'exercer à porter les armes il y a en fin de compte, en perte de tems, en dépenses pour l'armement, pour l'habillement, pour le rassemblement des troupes à certains tems de l'année, &c. une dépense réelle plus grande que celle qu'il faudroit pour tenir sur pied un petit nombre de troupes régulières?

Supposing a general militia to be equally expensive with a body of regular troops, yet the militia is preferable; because the whole being especially disciplined, has nothing to fear from a part.

Monsieur Franklin croit-il qu'on puisse entretenir en Amérique un corps de troupes sur pied dans chaque province conféderée sans mettre la liberté en danger?

Europe was without regular troops till lately. One powerful prince keeping an army always on foot makes it necessary for his neighbor to do the same to prevent surprise. We have no such dangerous neighbors in America. We shall probably keep magazines of arms and ammunition always filled, and no European power will ever find us so unprovided as England found us at the beginning of this war, or can prepare to invade us with a sufficient force in so short a time as not to give us time sufficient to discipline force sufficient to repel the invader.

Mr. F. therefore thinks, that to avoid not only the expense, but the danger of keeping up a body of regular troops in time of peace, none of the states separately will do it, nor the congress for the whole.

PROJECT FOR PREVENTING WARS.
(Extract of a Letter to Dr. Ingenhausz.)

Philadelphia, February 11, 1788. "I lament with you the prospect of a horrid war, which is likely to engage a great part of mankind. There is so little good gained and so much mischief done generally by wars, that I wish the imprudence of undertaking them were more evident to princes; in which case I think they would be less frequent. If I were counsellor to the Empress of Russia, and found that she desired to possess some part of the dominions of the Grand Signior, I should advise her to compute what the annual taxes raised from that territory may amount to, and make him an offer of buying it at the rate of paying for it twenty years purchase. And if I were his counsellor, I should advise him to take the money, and cede the dominion of that territory. For I am of opinion, that a war to obtain it will cost her more than that sum, and the event uncertain; and the defence of it, will cost him as much; and not having embraced the offer, his loss is double. But to make and accept such an offer, these potentates should be both of them reasonable creatures; and free from the ambition of glory, &c. which perhaps is too much to be supposed.'

"I am glad that peace is likely to be established in your native country,* with so little expense of blood, though it be done in a manner not agreeable to a great part of the nation. If the French had entered with the Prussians, and made it the seat of war, the mischief would have been infinite."

SOME GOOD WHIG PRINCIPLES.

[A printed paper, of which the following is a copy, was found among Dr. Franklin's papers, indorsed by him as above.]

DECLARATION of those RIGHTS of the Commonalty of Great Britain, without which they cannot be FRee.

It is declared,

First, That the government of this realm, and the making of laws for the same, ought to be lodged in the hands of King, Lords of parliament, and Representatives of the whole body of the Freemen of this realm.

'See Letter to B. Vaughan, Esq. Oct. 24, 1788.-PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE, Part I.

2 Holland.

VOL. III.

2 A

Secondly, That every man of the commonalty (excepting infants, insane persons, and criminals) is, of common right, and by the laws of God, a freeman, and entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty.

Thirdly, That liberty, or freedom, consists in having an actual share in the appointment of those who frame the laws, and who are to be the guardians of every man's life, property, and peace; for, the all of one man is as dear to him as the all of another; and the poor man has an equal right, but more need to have representatives in the legislature than the rich one.

Fourthly, That they who have no voice nor vote in the electing of representatives, do not enjoy liberty; but are absolutely enslaved to those who have votes, and to their representatives; for, to be enslaved, is to have governors whom other men have set over us, and to be subject to laws made by the representatives of others, without having had representatives of our own to give consent in our behalf.

Fifthly, That a very great majority of the commonalty of this realm are denied the privilege of voting for representatives in parliament; and, consequently, they are enslaved to a small number, who do now enjoy the privilege exclusively to themselves; but who, it may be presumed, are far from wishing to continue in the exclusive possession of a privilege, by which their fellow-subjects are deprived of common right, of justice, of liberty; and which, if not communicated to all, must speedily cause the certain overthrow of our happy constitution, and enslave us all.

And sixthly and lastly, We also say and do assert, that it is the right of the commonalty of this realm to elect a new House of Commons once in every year, according to the ancient and sacred laws of the land: because whenever a parliament continues in being for a longer term, very great numbers of the commonalty, who have arrived at the years of manhood since the last election, and therefore have a right to be actually represented in the House of Commons, are then unjustly deprived of that right.

END OF PART II.

PART III.

MISCELLANIES.

SECTION I.

RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS.

ARTICLES OF BELIEF, AND ACTS OF RELIGION,'

[Referred to in MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, Part II. p. 67. 4to. Edit.] Here will I hold—If there is a power above us (and that there is, all nature cries aloud, through all her works), He must delight in virtue; and that which he delights in, must be happy.—Cato.

PART I.

FIRST PRINCIPLES.

I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being, author and father of the Gods themselves.

For I believe that man is not the most perfect being but one, but rather that there are many degrees of beings superior to him.

Also when I stretch my imagination through and beyond our system of planets, beyond the visible fixed stars themselves, into that space that is every

way infinite, and conceive it filled with suns like ours, each with a chorus of worlds for ever moving round him; then this little ball on which we move, seems, even in my narrow imagination, to be almost nothing, and myself less than nothing, and of no sort of consequence.

When I think thus, I imagine it great vanity in me to suppose, that the supremely-perfect does in the least regard such an inconsiderable nothing as man; more especially, since it is impossible for me to have any clear idea of that which is infinite, and incomprehensible, I cannot conceive otherwise, than

This paper is dated PHILADELPHIA, November 20, 1728.