"And in his rising seemed a pillar of state--deep on his brow engraven deliberation sat and public care. His looks drew audience and attention still as night, or summer's noontide air." Who can paint the looks of the minister, as with darkly scowling eye-balls, he beheld this terror of aristocracy! or who can paint the NOBLE LORDLINGS, as lost in equal _stare_, they gazed and gazed at the wondrous American, forgetting the while, "_to quiz_," as they were wont, "_his homespun coat and simple shoe-strings_." But never did the mind-illumined looks of man shine more divinely bright than did those, that day, of the generous Barry, the godlike Chatham, and the high-minded Dunning, when they beheld the noble form of Franklin. Though born in North America, he shines before their eyes as a true born son of Britain--the luminous and brave interpreter of her SACRED CONSTITUTION, and the wise politician who seeks to exalt her glory, lasting as the skies, on the broad base of impartial justice to all her children. With eyes sparkling with esteem unutterable, they hail him as a brother; and breathe the ardent wish that in the impending examination he may succeed in diverting the minister from that unconstitutional course which may involve the ruin both of England and America. The moment for trial being come, and the minister giving the signal to begin, the speaker thus commenced:-- _Q._ What is your name and place of abode? _A._ Franklin, of Philadelphia. Here followed nearly _three hundred questions_ and _answers_, which were once read with exceeding interest by men, women, and children in America. But as they turn altogether on that great quarrel which the British ministry formerly excited in this country; and which God, to his endless glory, was pleased to put asleep in our favour near half a century ago, then let all these questions and answers lie asleep with it. However, it is but justice to Dr. Franklin to observe, that when we consider these questions, what a wide range they take both of the British and American _relations_ and _interests_--together with the _luminous_, prompt, and decisive manner in which they were solved, we are lost in astonishment at the extent of his information and the powers of his mind, and are almost tempted to believe that the _answers_, and not the _questions_ must have been studied with the nicest discrimination of circumstances. Charles Fox, an honest Englishman, and an excellent judge in these matters, being asked his opinion of Dr. Franklin and the _ministers_ in the late examination, replied, in his strong way, "_Dwarfs_, sir, mere _dwarfs in the hand of a giant_!" Edmund Burke used to say, that this examination of Dr. Franklin before the ministers, always put him in mind of a "_Master examined before a parcel of school-boys_."