214 



singular equipoise of a mind so nicely balanced as to respond 

 instantly to the demands of the moment, yet so firmly settled 

 as to be proof against every attempt to disturb or disconcert. 



If this famous episode was well calculated to exalt Dr. 

 Franklin to the highest pinnacle of political reputation as yet 

 attained by any American subject of the king of England, it 

 scarcely surpassed in interest another occasion of the same 

 eventful period. 



It was in February, 1766, that Dr. Franklin appeared before 

 the Commons to submit to the long but respectful examination 

 of which I have just spoken. It was nearly eight years later 

 (in January, 1774) that the venerable sage, the man whom the 

 world of letters and the world of science delighted to honor, 

 was subjected, in the presence of the Privy Council, to an 

 attack as scurrilous as it was indecent. There is no need that 

 I rehearse the familiar tale of the Hutchinson Letters and the 

 storm their publication aroused. That Dr. Franklin's part in 

 the transaction was fully justifiable, can scarcely fail, I think, 

 to be the unanimous verdict of impartial men. But the fury 

 of the party whose secrets were unmasked so unexpectedly, 

 can scarcely be imagined. Of that fury the scandalous occur- 

 rence in the Cockpit of Westminster (on the 29th of January, 

 1774) was the direct and disgraceful consequence. The gov- 

 ernment's very purpose in summoning Dr. Franklin was to 

 insult him ; and had it been in the power of malice to affix 

 ignominy to a great and virtuous man, the vituperative address 

 of the solicitor-general, Mr. Wedderburn, might have com- 

 passed that end. As it was, during the whole time that this 

 unseemly flood of abuse was poured upon his devoted head, 

 Dr. Franklin, to use the account of an eye-witness (Dr. Ban- 

 croft), " stood conspicuously erect, without the smallest move- 

 ment of any part of his body. The muscles of his face had 



