Franklin's Autobiography: (Eclectic English Classics)Franklin, Benjamin
History
Franklin's Autobiography: (Eclectic English Classics)
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
In the morning it was found by the soundings, etc., that we were near
our port, but a thick fog hid the land from our sight. About nine
o'clock the fog began to rise, and seemed to be lifted up from the
water like the curtain at a playhouse, discovering underneath the town
of Falmouth, the vessels in its harbor, and the fields that surrounded
it. This was a most pleasing spectacle to those who had been so long
without any other prospects than the uniform view of a vacant ocean,
and it gave us the more pleasure as we were now free from the
anxieties which the state of war occasioned.
I set out immediately, with my son, for London, and we only stopped a
little by the way to view Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, and Lord
Pembroke's house and gardens, with his very curious antiquities at
Wilton. We arrived in London the 27th of July, 1757.[206]
As soon as I was settled in a lodging Mr. Charles had provided for me, I
went to visit Dr. Fothergill, to whom I was strongly recommended, and
whose counsel respecting my proceedings I was advised to obtain. He was
against an immediate complaint to government, and thought the
proprietaries should first be personally applied to, who might possibly
be induced by the interposition and persuasion of some private friends,
to accommodate matters amicably. I then waited on my old friend and
correspondent, Mr. Peter Collinson, who told me that John Hanbury, the
great Virginia merchant, had requested to be informed when I should
arrive, that he might carry me to Lord Granville's, who was then
President of the Council, and wished to see me as soon as possible. I
agreed to go with him the next morning. Accordingly, Mr. Hanbury called
for me and took me in his carriage to that nobleman's, who received me
with great civility; and after some questions respecting the present
state of affairs in America and discourse thereupon, he said to me: "You
Americans have wrong ideas of the nature of your Constitution; you
contend that the king's instructions to his governors are not laws, and
think yourselves at liberty to regard or disregard them at your own
discretion. But those instructions are not like the pocket instructions
given to a minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct in some
trifling point of ceremony. They are first drawn up by judges learned in
the laws; they are then considered, debated, and perhaps amended in
Council, after which they are signed by the king. They are then, so far
as they relate to you, the law of the land, for the king is the
legislator of the colonies."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account