CHAPTER X.

ARTHUR LEE SUPPRESSED.

WE shall now have the pleasure of settling accounts with Mr. Arthur Lee and his two chief adherents. They died hard, but the reader may comfort himself with the assurance that Europe, Franklin, and the French ministry were rid of them at last. In order to render the story of their discomfiture complete, it is necessary for us to return to the time of Mr. Deane's secret departure from Paris in the spring of 1778.

That event, though it was a triumph for the Lee party, did not have the effect of improving their temper; since the circumstances attending it were such as to grate severely upon the susceptible jealousy of their chief. So rancorous was the animosity of the Lees at that time, that they would not, if they could avoid it, send dispatches in the ships employed by Dr. Franklin and his friends, but cherished captains of their own selection for the purpose. And after the departure of Mr. Deane, both the malignant Lee and the irascible Izard redoubled their exertions, in public and private letters, to place his conduct in the most odious light, and to involve Dr. Franklin in the ignominy of his alleged peculations.

We have seen, in previous pages, how seriously the mind of Mr. Ralph Izard was perturbed by the molasses articles of the commercial treaty, and, still more, by the omission of Dr. Franklin to consult him during the negotiations. He had now another grievance. Dr. Franklin had not vouchsafed to answer the impertinent and foolish letter which he had written him upon the molasses articles. After writing many letters upon this alleged neglect, he summed up all his complaints in a short and angry note, which he sent to Dr. Franklin by the hands of Mr. John Julius Pringle, his "private secretary." Mr. Pringle delivered the note, conversed with Dr. Franklin upon Izard's complaints, and drew up a report of the interview for the solace of his irritable employer. This document, ridiculous as it may seem, will serve to show on what puerile grounds these shallow progenitors of rebels based their long catalogue of accusations against the ornament of their country and their kind.

"Dr. Franklin," reported Mr. Pringle, "had scarcely read your note, when he said: 'Mr. Izard has written me a very angry letter; please to tell him that he has only made use of general assertions of my having done wrong, which I cannot otherwise answer than by denying. If I have given him any causes of offense, he should let me know what they are.' To this I replied,' that you had been kind enough to form so good an opinion of me, as to admit me into a share of your confidence; therefore I could take upon me to say, that you were persuaded you had clearly stated, in the several letters he had received from you, circumstances affording sufficient grounds of offense.' He said, 'he should be glad to know what these circumstances were.' I answered, in the first place, that, conceiving it your duty as a member of the States, having a considerable fortune there, and intrusted with a commission from Congress, to communicate as occasion offered all the intelligence you could, you found this communication greatly obstructed by a concealment on the part of Dr. Franklin of proper opportunities, when it was quite unnecessary, or when the end of secrecy might be answered, though you had been intrusted with the knowledge of them.' Upon which Dr. Franklin told me, 'that you had only complained of this in the present letter, and as to the particular opportunity you mentioned by M. Gerard, or Mr. Deane, he had not himself looked upon it as a good or proper one, and had not himself made use of it to write.'

"As another ground of complaint I observed, 'that, while the commercial treaty was on the carpet, you considered one article as highly unreasonable and inexpedient, and therefore expressly objected to it; you had in a letter fully specified the reasons upon which your disapprobation was founded, and had sent this letter to Dr. Franklin, in hopes of his removing your scruples, and setting you right if you were wrong, or letting your reasons and objections, if they were just, produce some good effect before the conclusion of the treaty, but you had never been favored with any answer on the subject, though you had repeatedly requested it.' Dr. Franklin alleged, that he would have given a full and satisfactory answer, but he had been prevented by business and various avocations; that he was still willing to give one, but could not conceive why you should be so impatient. Suppose he could not give it for a month hence, what great inconvenience would it oc

casion?' I observed, 'that the sooner you had it, you might be the better prepared to guard against any misrepresentation.' Dr. Franklin assured me that he had not been, nor would he ever be, guilty of any misrepresentation; so far from it, that he had not even written any thing concerning the matter. I told him, perhaps you might choose to lay it before Congress, and his answer might enable you to do it more fully and satisfactorily. Dr. Franklin said you should have an answer, but you must be patient; for he really was very much engaged by other business, and interrupted by people continually coming in upon him, though upon some frivolous errands, as was the case with the two Frenchmen, just gone away, who came only to ask him to buy cloth.

"I suggested as a third ground of complaint, that you had been directed by the Congress to propose to the court of Tuscany a commercial treaty similar to the one concluded with this court, which you therefore required as necessary for your regulation, in pursuance of the instructions of Congress, who directed you should have, not only the original treaty, but also the alterations which might be proposed; both were nevertheless withheld from you by Dr. Franklin without the least regard to your applications. Dr. Franklin replied, 'Did he go into Tuscany? Has not the treaty been sent to him?' I said, you had good reasons for staying; that the treaty was kept from you till the other day, when perhaps it was necessary for you to have had it as early as possible, even previous to your departure, to give it the maturer consideration, and because there might be explanations you would like to have made here; or observations might occur to you, which you might think it advisable to communicate to Congress, to have their further instructions as soon as you could.

"I do not recollect that Dr. Franklin made any direct reply to this. He observed, that he was clear he had not given you any just cause of offense, or reasonable grounds of complaint, that he was studious to avoid contention; he acknowledged that he owed. you an answer, but, though he was in your debt, he hoped you would be a merciful creditor; he would say, as the debtor in the Scripture, 'have patience, and I will pay thee all;' that you certainly ought to give him time, as you had urged so much matter as would require a pamphlet in answer. I told him that I was sure it was far from your disposition to court quarrels; that if the

reasons he gave in his answer to you were just and satisfactory, you would undoubtedly allow them their full weight; that satisfaction you were desirous of having, and were anxious to have the affair ended. He said he should endeavor to do it as soon as possible; in the mean time, he hoped to have no more such angry letters from you; his answer he promised should be a cool one, and that people who wrote such angry letters should keep them till they sufficiently reflected on the contents, before they sent them."

With regard to the ceaseless interruptions from visitors and parcels to which Dr. Franklin was subjected at Passy, he has left us a striking illustration in the memoranda of a single day, December 18, 1778. This is the record:

"A man came to tell me he had invented a machine which would go of itself, without the help of a spring, weight, air, water, or any of the elements, or the labor of man or beast, and with force sufficient to work four machines for cutting tobacco; that he had experienced it; would show it me if I would come to his house, and would sell the secret of it for two hundred louis. I doubted it, but promised to go to him in order to see it.

"A Monsieur Coder came with a proposition in writing to levy six hundred men, to be employed in landing on the coast of England and Scotland, to burn and ransom towns and villages, in order to put a stop to the English proceedings in that way in America. I thanked him, and told him I could not approve it, nor had I any money at command for such purposes; moreover, that it would not be permitted by the government here.

"A man came with a request that I would patronize and recommend to government an invention he had, whereby a hussar might so conceal his arms and habiliments, with provision for twenty-four hours, as to appear a common traveler; by which means a considerable body might be admitted into a town, one at a time, unsuspected, and, afterwards assembling, surprise it. I told him I was not a military man, of course no judge of such matters, and advised him to apply to the Bureau de la Guerre. He said he had no friends, and so could procure no attention. The number of wild schemes proposed to me is so great, and they have heretofore taken so much of my time, that I begin to reject all, though possibly some of them may be worthy notice.

"Received a parcel from an unknown philosopher, who submits

to my consideration a memoir on the subject of clementary fire, containing experiments in a dark chamber. It seems to be well written, and is in English, with a little tincture of French idiom. I wish to see the experiments, without which I cannot well judge of it."

This "unknown philosopher," upon inquiry, proved to be Jean Paul Marat, who was destined to play so memorable a part in the French Revolution, and to receive his death at the hands of Charlotte Corday. Marat had recently returned from England, where he had earned a scanty living by teaching French; and was then trying to live in Paris by his pen and by his experiments. Failing in this, he sold medicines in the streets. The Revolution found him in the employment of a veterinary surgeon.

Dr. Franklin's explanations, given both to Arthur Lee and Ralph Izard, were not satisfactory to the Carolinian. He laid his silly complaints before Congress, in a long and minute dispatch, in which he accused Dr. Franklin of "effrontery," of "chicanery," and of sacrificing the interests of the country to the interests of one section of it. "His abilities," wrote Izard, "are great, and his reputation high. Removed as he is at so considerable a distance from the observation of his constituents, if he is not guided by principles of virtue and honor, those abilities and that reputation may produce the most mischievous effects. In my conscience, I declare to you, that I believe him under no such restraint, and God knows that I speak the real, unprejudiced sentiments of my heart."

In May, 1778, another character appeared upon the scene, Mr. John Adams; the most undiplomatic of men, and of all honest men, the least able to endure a superior. Mr. Bancroft has sketched his character with truth, charity, and elegance; and his own diary portrays him to the life, as an honest, valiant, patriotic, fussy, vain, blundering Yankee John Bull. "He was humane," says Mr. Bancroft, "and frank, generous, and element; yet he wanted that spirit of love which reconciles to being out-done. He could not look with complacency on those who excelled him, and regarded another's bearing away the palm as a wrong to himself; he never sat placidly under the shade of a greater reputation than his own."* The marble bust of Mr. Adams, which now stands over the plat

* Bancroft's "History of the United States," viii., 309.