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ton. Upon his reception in the French Academy, d'Alembert welcomed him with that well-known line which revived the boldness and the fublimity of Lucan:

• Eripuit cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis.'

Dubourg, the first Frenchman who openly efpoused the cause of America, has infcribed under the head of Franklin this inscription :

Il a ravi le feu des Cieux;

Il fait fleurir les arts en des climats sau

vages:

L'Amerique le place a la tete des fages;

La Grece l'auroit mis au nombre des fes Dieux.'

In February 1777, he had the regular appointment of plenipotentiary from the Congress to the French Court, but obtained leave of difmiffion in 1780. In 1783 he caused a medal to be struck to commemorate the independence of America. July 24. 1785, he embarked at Havre, and on the fame day landed at Southampton; whence, after a flight refreshment, he failed for Cowes, where a veffel was ready to convey him to Philadelphia. He was received there September 15. with universal acclamation.

The memories of the aged are not supposed to be retentive. The truth, however, seems to be, that the tablet of the memory becomes callous at a certain period; nor is it susceptible of new impressions, and particularly of verbal knowledge. Franklin was an exception to this rule; he acquired French after seventy; he spoke fluent ly, and even scientifically, in that language. In his French embassy Dr Franklin became the ton, the fafhionable topic of modish converfation; the ladies had hats a-la Franklin; and crowds of belles and beaux often fluttered after him in the garden of the Thuilleries. His conversation was rendered valuable, not only by a love of truth, but by an accuVOL. XII. No. 67.

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racy of definition which he had acquired from mathematical study. Speaking of the late Comte de Vergennes, the French minifter, and having accidentally faid that he was a man of honour, he immediately added, "I call him a man of honour, because he never made me a promife, nor even gave me a hope, that he did not amply fulfill." In society he was fententious, but not fluent; a listener rather than a talker; an informing, rather than a pleasing companion; impatient of interruption, he often mentioned the custom of the Indians, who always remain filent some time before they give an answer to a queftion, which they have heard attentively; unlike some of the politest societies in Europe, where a sentence can scarcely be finished without interruption.

The stone, with which Dr Franklin had been afflicted for several years, had for the last 12 months confined him chiefly to his bed; and during the extreme painful paroxyfms he was obliged to take laudanum, to mitigate his tortures; still, in the intervals of pain, he not only amused himself with reading, and converfing chearfully with his family, and a few friends who visited him, but was often employed in doing business of a public as well as private nature; and in every instance displayed, not only a readiness and difpofition of doing good, but the fullest and clearest poffession of his mental abilities; and not unfrequently indulged in jeux d'esprit and entertaining anecdotes. About fixteen days before his death, he was seized with a feverish indisposition, without any particular fymptoms attending it til the third or fourth day, when he complained of a pain in his left breast, which increafed until it became extremely acute, with a cough, and laborious breathing. During this state, when the severity of his pain fometimes drew forth a groan of complaint, he would observe,

observe, that "he was afraid he did not bear them as he ought: acknowledged his grateful sense of the many blesfings he had received from that Supreme Being who had raised him, from small and low beginnings, to such high rank and confideration among men; and made no doubt his present afflictions were kindly intended to wean him from a world in which he was no longer fit to act the part assigned him." In this frame of body and mind he continued till five days before his death, when his pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him, and his family were flattering themselves with the hopes of his recovery, but an impofthumation, which had formed itself in his lungs, fuddenly burst, and discharged a great quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he had sufficient strength to do it, but as that failed, the organs of respiration became gradually oppressed, a calm lethargic state succeeded, and on the 17th of April, about eleven o'clock at night, he quietly closed a long and useful life. Three days before he died, the begged that his bed might be made, that he might die in a decent manner. His daughter told him, she hoped he would recover, and live many years longer; he replied, "I hope not.". He has left issue one fon, Governor William Franklin, who was a zealous and active Loyalist during the late Revolution, and now refides in London; and a daughter, married to Mr Richard Bache, a merchant in Philadelphia. To the two latter he has bequeathed the chief part of his eftate, during their respective lives, and afterwards to be divided equally among their children. To his grand son, William Temple Franklio, Esq; he leaves a grant of some lands in the state of Georgia, the greatest part of his library, and all his papers, befides something additional in case of his marriage. He has also made various bequests and donations to cities, pub

lic bodies, and individuals; and has requested that the following epitaph, which he composed for himself fome years ago, may be inscribed on his tombstone:

"The body of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Printer, (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out,

and stript of its lettering and gilding,) lies here food for worms:

yet the work itself shall not be loft, but will (as he believed,) appear

once more, in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by

THE AUTHOR."

Philadelphia never displayed a scene of greater grandeur than was exhibited at his funeral. His remains were interred on the 21st; and the concourse of people assembled on the occafion was immenfe. The body was attended to the grave by thirty clergymen, and men of all ranks and professions, arranged in the greatest order. All the bells in the city were tolled muffled, and there was a difcharge of artillery. Nothing was omitted that could shew the respect and veneration of his fellow-citizens for so exalted a character. The Congress have ordered a general mourning for one month throughout the United States; and the National Afsembly of France have also decreed a general mourning of three days. "The august spectacle of the repre. sentatives of the first free people on earth in mourning for the father of the liberty of two worlds (fays a correfpondent at Paris, June 14,) added peculiar interest and folemnity to the feffion of this day. So memorable a victory of philosophy over prejudice is not recorded in the annals of the human race."

Science shall hereafter record the name of Franklin in the truest registers of fame; that fame which is ever just to the dead, however unjust it may may be to the living, from caprice, from the malevolence of party, or from the fulfome adulations of servi

lity.

The principles and qualities of electricity were scarcely known in the last age. The electric fluid was barely mentioned at the end of Newton's Optics. It was referved for Franklin to investigate its properties; and of that branch of science he may be confidered as the father. Theory was advanced to practice and utility by the invention of the conductor. Nor were his observations confined to this science. There were few fubjects of common utility upon which

he did not comment, none which he did not improve and illustrate; of which, his Advice to Servants to Tradefmen-to Settlers in America -on the Cure of Smoky ChimniesRules for Clubs and for Conversation - Maxims to convert a great into a smail Empire, written with the cauftic spirit of Swift, abundantly prove. To be generally useful, that he might be universally celebrated, seemed to be his ruling principle.

A portrait of him is engraved by Heath, from a medallion in the poffeffion of Dr Lettsom, in his Memoirs of Fothergill, p. 164.

A remarkable and extraordinary Narrative of the revivification of young Joseph Taylor, who was supposed to have been hanged to death, (in company with that notorious Highwayman, Pickpocket, and Housebreaker, Archibald Taylor) on Boston Neck, on Thursday the 8th of May, 1788, for a violent Affault and Robbery on the Highavay, committed on the Perfon and Property of Mr Nathaniel Cunningham, Butcher, in October, 1787-In a Letter front faid Joseph Taylor, to his Friend and Countryman, Mr Phelim Donance, in Boston*.

My Dear Friend,

Y

Egg-Harbour, Mouth of the Delaware, May 12. 1788.

OU will, no doubt, be greatly aftonished at receiving a letter from one whom you so lately saw, to all appearance numbered with the dead, with all the ignominy of a public and shameful execution. But though strange as it may appear, it is no less strange than true, that, bleffed be God for his infinite goodness, I am now among the living to praise him. It was my fervent defire that you should have been made acquaint*ted with the steps which were taken to recover me to life immediately after my being hanged. But the doctor who managed the affair would not admit of more than five persons in the fecret, as he feared a discovery, and said a crowd around me would be fatal, and prevent the air getting

into my lungs, and O'Donnell and Tector had been told of it before I faw you; and they, with the doctor, his young man, and a perfon he brought with him, made the five. I therefore take this early opportunity to let you know of my being alive. and in health, blessed be God! as I hope these lines will find you; as also the circumstances which attended my execution and recovery to life; as also my present frame of mind and resolution, through the grace of God, to fin no more, but endeavour after new obedience.

You remember that you, among other friends, had great hopes of my being pardoned on account of my youth; but when their Honours sat, 1 soon found I must be made an example

C2

• From the Vermont Journal. An American Paper.

ample of, as they were determined never to pardon highwaymen. I then began to prepare for death; but must needs say, though I had many affecting conferences with the reverend parsons who visited me in goal, I never, even after my condemnation, realized that I was fuddenly to die in so awful a manner, until a gentleman, who I afterwards found was a doctor, came and talked privately with the late unhappy fufferer, and my fellow convict, Archihald Taylor, who, when the gentleman was gone, came to me with money in his hand, and so smiling a countenance, that I thought he had received it in charity. But he foon undeceived me, telling me with an air of gaiety, that it was the price of his body; and then added a shocking speech which I fincerely hope is blotted out of the book of God's remembrance against his poor foul.

This was the first time since my condemnation that I thought what it was to die. The shock was terrible, and Taylor increased it, saying that the doctor had defired him to bargain with me for my body alfo. The thoughts of my bones not being permitted to remain in the grave in peace, and my body, which my poor mother had fo often careffed and dandled on her knee, and which had been fo pampered by my friends in my better days, being flashed and mangled by the doctors, was too much for me. I had been deaf to the pious exhortations of the priests; but now my confcience was awakened, and hell. seemed indeed to yawn for

me.

What a night of horror was the next night!-When the doctor came in the morning to bargain for my body, I was in a cold sweat; my knees smote together, and my tongue feemed to cleave to the roof of my mouth. He perceived the agony of my foul, and asked me fome ques tions of the ftate of my mind. I

found utterance and poured out my heart to him. He seemed affected with my distress, especially as my conduct was so different from that of A. Taylor's; and after pausing, he left me without mentioning the sale of my body, and said he would call again the next day. He came and asked me privately whether I had two or three friends I could depend upon to assist in any thing for my benefit. He communicated his design of attempting to recover me to life, if my body could be carried, immediately after I was cut down, to fome convenient place, out of the reach of the people; assuring me by all that was facred, that if he failed in his attempt, he would give my body a Chriftian burial. I closed with it without hesitating. The doctor then left me, and foon after Tector and O'Donnel came to fee me, to whom I communicated the plan in confidence. The doctor came back to charge me not to truft more perfons than were fuficient to carry my body from the gallows to the place provided. I told him who the perfons with me were; and upon O'Donnell's engaging to procure a number of his countrymen to remove my body to a private place, who were not to be let into the fecret, but suppose it was to fecure my body from the doctors, he seemed pleased with the plan, and made us promise to admit no more persons into the secret, upon pain of his not having to do in the affair fo foon as it leaked out. He gave them money to hire a small boat to be in readiness at the wharf nearest to the place of execution, which was accordingly done. The two-maft boat, in which was the doctor, his friend, and apprentice, with their doctor's inftruments, was moored up the bay, near the gallows, the morning of the execution day, but fell down with the tide, about two hours before the execution, towards Dorchesterpoint, for fear of being grounded.

The

The state of my mind after my conversation with the doctor, until the day of execution, it is impossible for me to describe. This glimpse of hope, this mere chance of escaping the jaws of death, and of avoiding the eyes of an offended Judge, at whose bar I was no ways prepared to appear, seemed to render my mind but more diftracted. I sometimes indulged my felf with the thoughts of being recovered to life; and as I had fortunately concealed my real name, that I might return, like the Prodigal, to my parents, and live a life devoted to God and their comfort. But I oftener feared the means might fail to bring me to life and then I wished that this scheme had never been mentioned, as the hopes of life seemed to prevent my conversion; and then, to be surprised into another world, totally unprepared, how terrible! Thus distracted, the time flew and the awful day arrived. In the morning the Reverend Parsons visited me. I was much foftened by their conversation: and really, at that time, wished I had never seen the doctor, but by the near and certain approach of death, had been prepared to live in those blifsful manfions which are prepared in the world of glory for the truly penitent.

Soon after they left us, the doctor's young man came (under pretence of a meffage from Mrs Ranger, who had shown me much kindness in goal, the Lord reward her for it) to renew the doctor's directions how to condust my body fo as not to fuffer the least shock, and bid me keep up my spirits.

My hopes were now raised, and my former terror did not return upon me; which I doubt not was observed by the reverend Parfon who attended me, by the officers of justice, and the multitude, who doubtless compared my behaviour with that of my fellow fufferer. It is true, when I mounted the stage, I dreaded the pain

of hanging as I should any other bodily pain equally severe; but the far greater distress of meeting an offended, inexorable Judge, and being consigned to endless mifery, was done a way: for the nearer the time of execution approached, the more my reliance on the doctor increased.

You was present at the folemn parting with, and warning which was given to the people at the excellent prayer of the Reverend Mr Stillman, and the dropping of the traps, which to all appearance launched me and my poor unhappy fellow prifoner, Archibald Taylor, into a boundless eternity.

I cannot take a better opportunity than to declare here, folemnly (as a man who, though he has once providentially escaped death, knows he must soon die, and come to judgment) that neither his honour the High Sheriff, whose tenderness and humanity otherwise I shall ever acknowledge, nor Mr Otis, nor Mr Millish, the Deputy Sheriff, who were the three officers with us on the stage, or any other officer of justice, had any knowledge of my escape from death.

But to return to my particular feelings-I preferved my prefence of mind; and when the halter was fastened, remembered the doctor's directions, and while the prayer was making I kept gently turning my head so as to bring the knot on the back of my neck, nearly, as O'Donnel afterwards informed, and as you and o thers observed. When the trap fell I had all my senses about me; and though I have no remembrance of bearing any founds among the people, yet I believe I did not lose my senses until some minutes after. My first feelings after the shock of falling was a violent strangling and oppreffion for want of breath this foon gave way to a pain in my eyes, which feemed to be burned by two balls of firewhich appearedbefore them, which seemed to dart on and off like light

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