government, and not of a mere league. It aimed
at creating " a public authority as obligatory in its
sphere as the local governments were in their
spheres"; and in this respect it was much more
complete than the articles of confederation under
which the thirteen states contrived to live from
1781 till 1789. But public opinion was not yet ripe
for the adoption of such bold and comprehensive
ideas. After long debate, the Albany congress de-
cided to adopt Franklin's plan, and copies of it
were sent to all the colonies for their considera-
tion ; but nowhere did it meet with popular ap-
proval. A town-meeting in Boston denounced it
as subversive of liberty; Pennsylvania rejected it
without a word of discussion ; not one of the as-
semblies voted to adopt it. When sent over to
England, to be inspected by the ministers of the
crown, it only irritated and alarmed them. In
England it was thought to give too much inde-
pendence of action to the colonies ; in America it
was thought to give too little. The scheme was,
moreover, impracticable, because the desire for
union on the part of the several colonies was still
extremely feeble : but it shows on the part of
Franklin wonderful foresightedness.- If the Revo-
lution had not occurred, we should probably have
sooner or later come to live under a constitution
resembling the Albany plan. On the other hand,
if the Albany plan had been put into operation, it
might perhaps have so adjusted the relations of the
colonies to the British government that the Revo-
lution would not have occurred.
The only persons that favored Franklin's scheme were the royal governors, and this was because they hoped it might be of service in raising money with which to fight the French. In such matters the local assemblies were extremely niggardly. At the beginning of the war in 1755, F^ranklin had been for some years the leading spirit in the assem- bly of Pennsylvania, which was engaged in a fierce dispute with the governor concerning the taxation of the proprietary estates. The governor con- tended that these should be exempt from taxation ; the assembly insisted rightly that these estates should bear their due share of the public burdens. On another hotly disputed question the assembly was clearly in the wrong ; it insisted upon issuing jtaper money, and against this pernicious folly governor after governor fought with obstinate bra- very. In 1755 the result of these furious conten- tions was that Braddock's army was unable to get any support except from the steadfast personal ex- ertions of Franklin, who used his great influence with the farmers to obtain horses, wagons, and provisions, pledging his own pi'operty for their payment. Until the question of the proprietary estates should be settled, the operations of the war seemed likely to be paralyzed. In 1757 Franklin was sent over to England to plead the cause of the assembly before the privy council. This business kept him in England five years, in the course of which he became acquainted with the most emi- nent people in the country. His discoveries and writings had won him a European reputation. Be- fore he left England, in 1763, he received the de- gree of LL. D. from the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. His arguments before the privy coun- cil were successful ; the sorely vexed question was decided against the proprietary governors ; and on his return to Pennsylvania in 1762 he received the formal thanks of the assembly. It was not long before his services were again required in England. In 1764 Grenville gave notice of his proposed stamp-act for defraying part of the expenses of the late war, and Franklin was sent to England as agent for Pennsylvania, and instructed to make every effort to prevent the passage of the stamp-act. He carried out his instructions ably and faithfully ; but when the obnoxious law was passed in 1765, he counselled submission. In this case, however, the wisdom of this wisest of Americans proved inferior to the " collective wisdom " of his fellow-country- men. Warned by the fierce resistance of the Americans, the new ministry of Lord Rockingham decided to reconsider the act. In an examination before the house of commons, Franklin's strong sense and varied knowledge won general admira- tion, and contributed powerfully toward the repeal of the stamp-acjt. The danger was warded ofl' but for a time, however. Next year Charles Towns- hend carried his measures for taxing American imports and applying the proceeds to the main- tenance of a civil list in each of the colonies, to be responsible only to the British government. The need for Franklin's services as mediator was now so great that he was kept in England, and presently the colonies of Massachusetts, New Jer- sey, and Georgia chose him as their agent. Dur- ing these years he made many warm friendships with eminent men in England, as with Burke, Lord Shelburne, Lord Howe, David Hartley, and Dr. Priestley. His great powers were earnestly de- voted to preventing a separation between England and America. His methods were eminently con- ciliatory; but the independence of character with which he told unwelcome truths made him an ob- ject of intense dislike to the king and his friends, who regarded him as aiming to undermine the royal authority in America. George III. is said to have warned his ministers against " that crafty American, who is more than a match for you all." In 1774 this dread and dislike found vent in an explosion, the echoes of which have hardly yet died away. This was the celebrated affair of the "Hutchinson letters."
For several years a private and unofficial corre- spondence had been kept up between Hutchinson, Oliver, and other high officials in Massachusetts, on the one hand, and Thomas Whately, who had for- merly been private secretary to George Grenville, on the other. The choice of Whately for corre- spondent was due to the fact that he was supposed to be very familiar at once with colonial affairs and with the "views and purposes of the king's friends. In these letters Hutchinson had a great deal to say about" the weakness of the royal government in Massachusetts, and the need for a strong military force to support it ; he condemned the conduct of Samuel Adams and the other popular leaders as seditious, and enlarged upon the turbulence of the people of Boston ; he doubted if it were practica- ble for a colony removed by 8,000 miles of ocean to enjoy all the liberties of the mother country without severing its connection with her; and he had therefore reluctantly come to the conclusion that Massachusetts must submit to "an abridg- ment of what are called English liberties." Oliver, in addition to such general views, maintained that judges and other crown officers should have fixed salaries assigned by the crown, so as to become in- dependent of popular favor. There can be no doubt that such suggestions were made in perfect good faith, or that Hutchinson and Oliver had the true in- terests of Massachusetts at heart, according to their lamentably inadequate understanding of the mat- ter. But to the people of Massachusetts, at that time, such suggestions could but seem little short of treasonable. Thomas Whately died in June, 1772. and all his papers passed into the custody of William, his brother and executor. In the follow-
