Having been for some time employed by the postmaster-general of America as his comptroller[149] in regulating several offices, and bringing the officers to account, I was, upon his death, in 1753, appointed, jointly with Mr. William Hunter, to succeed him, by a commission from the postmaster-general in England. The American office never had hitherto paid anything to that of Great Britain. We were to have six hundred pounds a year between us, if we could make that sum out of the profits of the office. To do this a variety of improvements were necessary. Some of these were inevitably at first expensive, so that in the first four years the office became above nine hundred pounds in debt to us; but it soon after began to repay us, and before I was displaced by a freak of the ministers,[150] of which I shall speak hereafter, we had brought it to yield three times as much clear revenue to the Crown as the post office of Ireland. Since that imprudent transaction they have received from it--not one farthing! The business of the post office occasioned my taking a journey this year to New England, where the College of Cambridge,[151] of their own motion, presented me with the degree of Master of Arts. Yale College, in Connecticut, had before made me a similar compliment. Thus, without studying in any college, I came to partake of their honors. They were conferred in consideration of my improvements and discoveries in the electric branch of natural philosophy. In 1754, war with France being again apprehended, a congress of commissioners from the different colonies was, by an order of the Lords of Trade,[152] to be assembled at Albany, there to confer with the chiefs of the Six Nations[153] concerning the means of defending both their country and ours. Governor Hamilton, having received this order, acquainted the House with it, requesting they would furnish proper presents for the Indians, to be given on this occasion, and naming the speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself to join Mr. Thomas Penn and Mr. Secretary Peters as commissioners to act for Pennsylvania. The House approved the nomination, and provided the goods for the present, though they did not much like treating out of the provinces; and we met the other commissioners at Albany about the middle of June.