223 



acceptable on your side, I would try to get it inserted in the 

 general treaty. / think it will do honor to the nations that 

 establish it. 11 * 



Dr. Franklin was right, but, finding no favor with the gov- 

 ernment of Great Britain, the proposal was declined. Its 

 author, however, did not despair. A few years later he had 

 the satisfaction of being able to write to M. Leroy : " I rejoice 

 to hear that the difference between the emperor and your 

 country [France] is accommodated, for I love peace. You will 

 see in the treaty we have made with Prussia some marks of 

 my endeavors to lessen the calamities of future wars." Accord- 

 ingly we find near the close of that document, signed as I have 

 said by Dr. Franklin, as one of the three commissioners 

 appointed by Congress, just before his return, an article — it is 

 the twenty -third — almost identical in its phraseology with 

 that which he had, two years before, offered to Mr. Oswald 

 for consideration. In it occur these memorable words : "And 

 all merchant and trading vessels employed in exchanging the 

 products of different places and thereby rendering the neces- 

 saries, conveniences and comforts of human life more easy to 

 be obtained and more general, shall be allowed to pass free 

 and unmolested ; and neither of the contracting powers shall 

 grant or issue any commissions to any private armed vessels, 

 empowering them to take or destroy such trading vessels or 

 interrupt such commerce." f 



Not only so, but, in a succeeding article, the attempt is made 

 further to mitigate the sufferings entailed by war by provisions 

 of the most kindly character, stipulating in great detail what 

 shall be the treatment of prisoners. They shall not be sent 



* Works, viii, 245. 



f Text in " Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States of America 

 and other powers since July 4, 1776 " (Washington, 1889), 905, 906. 



