"When Dr. Franklin went to France on his revolutionary mission, his eminence as a philosopher, his venerable appearance, and the cause on which he was sent, rendered him extremely popular; for all ranks and conditions of men there, entered warmly into the American interest. He was therefore feasted and invited to all the court parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess of Bourbon, who being a chess-player of about his force, they very generally played together. Happening once to put her king into _prise_, the Doctor took it. 'Ah,' says she, 'we do not take kings so.' 'We do in America,' said the doctor. "At one of these parties, the Emperor Joseph II., then at Paris, _incog._ under the title of Count Falkenstein, was overlooking the game, in silence, while the company was engaged in animated conversations on the American question. 'How happens it, M. Le Comte,' said the Duchess 'that while we all feel so much interest in the cause of the Americans, you say nothing for them?' 'I am a king by trade,' said he. "When the Declaration of Independence was under the consideration of Congress, there were two or three unlucky expressions in it, which gave offence to some members. The words 'Scotch and other auxiliaries,' excited the ire of a gentleman or two of that country. Severe strictures on the conduct of the British king, in negativing our repeated repeals of the law which permitted the importation of slaves, were disapproved by some southern gentlemen, whose reflections were not yet matured to the full abhorrence of that traffic. Although the offensive expressions were immediately yielded, these gentlemen continued their depredations on other parts of the instrument. I was sitting by Dr. Franklin, who perceived that I was not insensible to those mutilations. 'I have made it a rule,' said he, 'whenever in my power, to avoid becoming the draughtsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. I took my lesson from an incident which I will relate to you. When I was a journeyman printer, one of my companions, an apprentice hatter, having served out his time, was about to open shop for himself. His first concern was to have a handsome sign-board, with a proper inscription. He composed it in these words:--'John Thompson, _Hatter_, _makes_ and _sells hats for ready money_,' with a figure of a hat subjoined. But he thought he would submit it to his friends for their amendments. The first he showed it to, thought the word '_hatter_' tautologous, because followed by the words 'makes hats,' which shew he was a hatter. It was struck out. The next observed that the word '_makes_' might as well be omitted, because his customers would not care who made the hats; if good and to their mind, they would buy, by whomsoever made. He struck it out. A third said, he thought the words '_for ready money_,' were useless, as it was not the custom of the place to sell on credit: every one who purchased expected to pay.