* The remainder of the letter (MS. Philosoph. Soc., Philadelphia) seems to be in the writing of William Temple Franklin, to whom probably Paine had enclosed a note: "Mr. Williams whom you inquire after accompanied us to America, and is now here. We left Mrs. Wms. and her sisters well at St. Ger's, but they proposed shortly returning to England to live with their uncle, Mr. J. Alexander, who has entirely settled his affairs with Mr. Wal-pole and the Bank. Mr. Wm. Alex'r I suppose you know is in Virginia fulfilling his tobacco contract with the Farmer Gen'l. The Marquis la Fayette we saw a few days before we left Passy--he was well and on the point of setting off on an excursion into Germany, and a visit to the Emperor K. of Prussia.--I purpose shortly being at New York, where I will with pleasure give you any further information you may wish, and shall be very happy to cultivate the acquaintance and friendship of Mr. Paine, for whose character I have a sincere regard and of whose services I, as an American, have a grateful sense" The "arduous undertaking" to which Franklin refers was of course the iron bridge. But it will be seen by our next letter that Paine had another invention to lay before Franklin, to whom he hastened after receiving his $3,000 from Congress: "Dec. 31, 1785.--Dear Sir,--I send you the Candles I have been making;--In a little time afer they are lighted the smoke and flame separate, the one issuing from one end of the Candle, and the other from the other end. I supposed this to be because a quantity of air enters into the Candle between the Tallow and the flame, and in its passage downwards takes the smoke with it; for if you allow a quantity of air up the Candle, the current will be changed, and the smoke reascends, and in passing this the flame makes a small flash and a little noise. "But to express the Idea I mean, of the smoke descending more clearly it is this,--that the air enters the Candle in the very place where the melted tallow is getting into the state of flame, and takes it down before the change is completed--for there appears to me to be two kinds of smoke, humid matter which never can be flame, and enflameable matter which would be flame if some accident did not prevent the change being completed--and this I suppose to be the case with the descending smoke of the Candle.