He adds, in language which every young man should treasure up in his memory, "I retained the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced anything that might possibly be disputed, the words, _certainly_, _undoubtedly_, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather, I _conceive_, or _apprehend_ a thing to be so and so. _It appears to me_, or, _I should not think it so for such and such reasons_, or, _I imagine it to be so_, or, _It is so if I am not mistaken_. This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions; and to persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time proposing." When Franklin assumed the charge of the post-office, the department was in a feeble and peculiar condition. As late as the year 1757, the mail-bag in Virginia was passed from planter to planter. Each one was required to forward it promptly, under the penalty of forfeiting a hogshead of tobacco. Every man took, from the bag, what belonged to his family, and sent on the rest. The line of post-offices then extended from Boston, Mass., to Charleston, S. C. It was twenty years after this, before any governmental mail penetrated the interior. In the year 1753, Franklin visited every post-office excepting that of Charleston. His wisdom introduced reforms, some of which have continued to the present day. A newspaper was charged nine pence a year, for a distance of fifty miles, and eighteen pence for one hundred miles or more. In the large towns a penny post was established, and all letters left remaining in the office were advertised. A mail was conveyed from Philadelphia to New York once a week in summer, and once in two weeks in winter. Franklin started a mail to leave each of these cities three times a week in summer, and twice in winter. It generally required six weeks to obtain an answer from a letter sent to Boston. Most of the roads, into the interior, consisted of narrow passages, cut through the forest, called Bridle Paths, because the pack horses were led through them, in single file by the bridle. CHAPTER VIII. _The Rising Storms of War._ Aristocracy--Anecdote--Conflicting laws of Nations--Franklin's scheme of colonization--Proposal of the British Court--The foresight of Franklin--Braddock's campaign--Remonstrances of Franklin and Washington--Franklin's interviews with Braddock--Franklin's efficiency--Confidence of Braddock--The conflict with the Proprietaries--The non-resistant Quakers--Fate of the Moravian villages--The winter campaign--The camp of Gaudenhutton--Anecdote--Renewal of the strife with the Proprietaries--Franklin recalled to assist the Assembly--Destruction of the Fort--Claim of the Proprietaries--The great controversy.