_A._ The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in their courts, obedience to the acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies, to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper; they were led by a thread. They had not only a respect but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an "Old England man" was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us. _Q._ And what is their temper now? _A._ Oh, very much altered.... _Q._ If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would it induce the assemblies of America to acknowledge the right of Parliament to tax them, and would they erase their resolutions? _A._ No, never. _Q._ Are there no means of obliging them to erase those resolutions? _A._ None that I know of; they will never do it unless compelled by force of arms. _Q._ Is there a power on earth that can force them to erase them? _A._ No power, how great soever, can force men to change their opinions.... _Q._ What used to be the pride of the Americans? _A._ To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain. _Q._ What is now their pride? _A._ To wear their old clothes over again, till they can make new ones. After the repeal of the act, Franklin wrote to his wife: "I am willing you should have a new gown, which you may suppose I did not send sooner as I knew you would not like to be finer than your neighbors unless in a gown of your own spinning. Had the trade between the two countries totally ceased, it was a comfort to me to recollect that I had once been clothed from head to foot in woolen and linen of my wife's manufacture, that I never was prouder of any dress in my life, and that she and her daughter might do it again if it was necessary." Franklin stayed ten years in England. In 1774 he presented to the king the petition of the first Continental Congress, in which the petitioners, who protested their loyalty to Great Britain, claimed the right of taxing themselves. But, finding this and other efforts at adjustment of little avail, he returned to Philadelphia in May, 1775. On the 5th of July he wrote to Mr. Strahan, an old friend in London: "You are a member of Parliament, and one of that majority which has doomed my country to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns and murder our people. Look upon your hands; they are stained with the blood of your relations! You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I am yours."