you my fears as to the future. There are limitations to what men like our colonists, accustomed to a large measure of individual freedom, will endure. We seem to me to have gone back a century and to be at the commencement of just such a struggle with the crown as then occurred.
I was interested in what you said of the great coldness of a spring at Mount Vernon. I will, when opportunity serves, send you a good thermometer, when I think you will find that your wells have near about what is the average heat of the air for the entire year.
I hope to hear from you at your convenience, and, believe me, I shall feel myself honoured by any such mark of your attention, and that I am, with respect,
Your ob'd't humble servant,
Benjamin Franklin.
P.S. I venture to enclose one of my almanacs.
B. F.
I gave this almanac and the letter to be
read to my Lord Fairfax. He returned
them, saying that what was said of the way
of governing the colonies was true, but that
Mr. Franklin overstated what was to be
feared in the future; and as to the almanac,
damn the man's little maxims! They smelt
of New England.
