Private Correspondence OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, LL.D. F.R.S. &c. MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, AND FOR THE TREATY OF PEACE COMPRISING A SERIES OF LETTERS ON MISCELLANEOUS, LITERARY, AND POLITICAL SUBJECTS: WRITTEN BETWEEN THE YEARS 1753 AND 1790; ILLUSTRATING THE Memoirs of his Public and Private Life, AND DEVELOPING THE SECRET HISTORY OF HIS POLITICAL TRANSACTIONS AND NEGOCIATIONS. PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS, BY HIS GRANDSON WILLIAM TEMPLE FRANKLIN. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. THIRD EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN, CONDUIT STREET. Mrs. F. W. Kelsey 3-20-30 2V. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. FAMILIAR letters have been usually considered as exhibiting a portraiture of the human mind; and though perhaps they are not always to be so regarded, especially in the intercourse of public men upon subjects involving particular interests and questions of national policy; yet even from these documents the most valuable materials of history are drawn, and the secret springs of great events are disclosed. Hence it is, that a deserved importance has ever been attached to the correspondence of persons who have figured with distinction in political revolutions, and the foundation of new states: |