6 



also, he was not so good a Whig, nor so great a friend to our 

 revolutionary movement. 



Could we ask Dr. Franklin " who, of all men, best deserved 

 a statue, in commemoration of active, disinterested, and valua- 

 ble services in building up the Philadelphia Library ?" he would 

 say, " Peter Collinson." Those most knowing in the early his- 

 tory of this institution now say, that the marble which occu- 

 pies a niche in its front, would have found a more fitting place 

 in front of the Philosophical Hall opposite. Ask Franklin 

 again, " from whom he derived the information, and who fur- 

 nished him with the hints, and put into his hands the actual 

 mea.ns, whereby he made his splendid discovery of the identity 

 of lightning and electricity," and he will tell you, "Peter Col- 

 linson."* It is melancholy to think that his thirty years gra- 

 tuitous and invaluable services for the Library should have 

 been terminated by this excellent man, as we have good author- 

 ity to believe, under a sense that they had not been duly esti- 

 mated by those having it in charge. 



He was the only man in the Royal Society at London who 

 appreciated Franklin's letters announcing his discovery; which, 

 when first communicated there, were frowned down, sneered at, 

 and refused a place in their published transactions. Peter 

 Collinson had them published, drew the attention of knowing 



* In Dr. Lettsom's edition of Dr. Fothergill's works we find a letter 

 from Dr. Franklin to Michael Collinson, Esq., on the occasion of his 

 father's death, dated "Craven Street, Feb. 8, 1770," from which we 

 give an extract. After referring to and describing the valuable services 

 rendered to the Philadelphia Library, by Peter Collinson, he goes on to 

 say: 



" During the same time he transmitted to the Directors of the Library 

 the earliest accounts of every new European improvement in agriculture 

 and the arts, and every philosophical discovery ; among which, in 1745, 

 he sent over an account of the new German experiments in electricity, 

 together with a glass tube, and some directions for using it, so as to repeat 

 these experiments. This was the first notice I had of that curious sub- 

 ject, which I afterwards prosecuted with some diligence, being encouraged 

 by the friendly reception he gave to the letters I wrote to him upon it. 

 Please to accept this small testimony of mine to his memory, for which I 

 shall ever have the utmost respect ; and believe me, with sincere esteem, 

 Dear Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 



B. FRANKLIN." 



