[Note 46: As an example of the manner in which Franklin sometimes was driven to express himself, his letter to M. Lith is admirable. This gentleman had evidently irritated him somewhat, and Franklin demolished him with a reply in that plain, straightforward style of which he was a master, in which appeared no anger, but sarcasm of that severest kind which lies in a simple statement of facts. I regret that there is not space to transcribe it, but it may be read in his _Works_, vi. 85.] The severest dose which he administered must have made some of those excitable swords quiver in their scabbards. He drew up and used this "MODEL OF A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION OF A PERSON YOU ARE UNACQUAINTED WITH "_Sir_,--The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to give him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name. This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings another equally unknown to recommend him; and sometimes they recommend one another! As to this gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be. I recommend him however to those civilities, which every stranger, of whom one knows no harm, has a right to; and I request you will do him all the good offices and show him all the favor, that, on further acquaintance, you shall find him to deserve. I have the honor to be, &c." It would be entertaining to know how many of these letters were delivered, and in what phrases of French courtesy gratitude was expressed for them. Sometimes, if any one persisted, in spite of discouragement, in making the journey at his own cost, and, being forewarned, also at his own risk of disappointment, Franklin gave him a letter strictly confined to the scope of a civil personal introduction. Possibly, now and again, some useful officer may have been thus deterred from crossing the water; but any such loss was compensated several hundredfold by shutting off the intolerable inundation of useless foreigners. Nor was Franklin wanting in discretion in the matter; for he commended Lafayette and Steuben by letters, which had real value from the fact of the extreme rarity of such a warranty from this source. Franklin was little given to political prophecy, but it is interesting to read a passage written shortly after his arrival, May 1, 1777:--