221 



on the eve of his departure from Paris, were embodied those 

 philanthropic provisions that are destined, we hope, to mark 

 . the era of a higher and purer civilization. 



Much as Dr. Franklin had had to do with the prosecution 

 of war, forced thereto by the circumstances of the hour, he 

 was preeminently a man of peace. " I am of opinion," he 

 once wrote to the banker, Le Grand, " I am of opinion that 

 there never was a bad peace, nor a good war." * He hoped 

 great things from the spread of intelligence and especially of 

 mutual forbearance. Hence he rejoiced when Louis XVI, by 

 his edict of toleration (1787), took the first step toward undo- 

 ing the mischief wrought by Louis XIVs gigantic blunder in 

 revoking the Edict of Nantes. " The arret in favor of the 

 non catholiques" he wrote from Philadelphia, " gives great 

 pleasure here, not only from its present advantages, but as it 

 is a good step towards general toleration, and to the abolish- 

 ing, in time, all party spirit among Christians, and the mis- 

 chiefs that have so long attended it. Thank God, the world 

 is growing wiser and wiser, and as by degrees men are con- 

 vinced of the folly of wars for religion, for dominion or for 

 commerce, they will be happier and happier." f 



Meanwhile, as the prospect of the entire abolition of war 

 was yet very dim and shadowy, Dr. Franklin regarded it an 

 end well worth laboring for to reduce as much as possible the 

 attendant horrors. Two of these — privateering and the cruel 

 treatment of prisoners of war — he set himself to remove. 



He had written frequently and decidedly in condemnation 

 of privateering, which he stigmatized as a remnant of the 

 ancient piracy, and argued that though accidentally beneficial 

 to particular persons, it was far from profitable to the nation 



* Works, ix, 298. 

 Letter to M. Le Veillard, Philadelphia, 8 June, 1788. Works, ix, 481. 



