xxv THE CLUB OF HONEST WHIGS 317 



no longer tolerate their autocratic ways. " When a 

 proprietary house is blinded to its own interest by avarice, 

 and seeks to continue its authority by oppression, it is 

 no longer worthy of dominion. Let this centre where it 

 ought to be, in the Crown, which will be to the benefit 

 of the Province." x A petition in this latter sense, 

 already favoured by some of the Friends, was drawn up 

 by the Assembly, and Franklin brought it to England 

 in December 1764, settling once more at his old lodgings 

 in Craven Street. There for ten stormy years he toiled, 

 in good report and in evil report, for the American cause. 

 During this period he was often in touch with Fothergill, 

 visiting him in Harpur Street, and meeting him at what 

 Franklin called the " Club of honest Whigs," on alternate 

 Thursday evenings at a Coffee-house, the " Queen's 

 Arms," in St. Paul's Churchyard, and afterwards at the 

 London Coffee-house in Ludgate Hill. This Club was also 

 frequented by Dr. Richard Price, Dr. Priestley, Peter 

 Collinson, Dr. Hawksworth, Dr. Kippis, Stanley the com- 

 poser, John Lee and others. 2 Tolerant and conciliatory, 

 Franklin was a lover of England as well as of his own 

 country. " It has often happened to me," he wrote, " that 

 while I have been thought here too much of an American, I 

 have in America been deemed too much of an Englishman. ' ' 

 The dispute with the Proprietaries was soon over- 

 shadowed by a greater matter. Large debts had been 

 incurred by the British government to meet the cost of 

 war, partly for the defence of the American colonies, and 

 Grenville, who had become Prime Minister in 1763, sought 

 to raise revenue from those colonies. 3 He stiffened the 



1 Letter of an unknown friend of FothergilTs, probably to W. Logan, 

 June 5, 1764, J. M. Fox MSS. 



2 Smyth, x. 275 ; J. Parton, Life of Franklin, 1864, i. 541. The well- 

 known Dr. Richard Price, Unitarian minister in London, was born 1723 and 

 died 1791 ; he was a philosopher, an economist and an enlightened advocate of 

 civil liberty. Fothergill probably owed something to his influence. Drs. Maty, 

 Parsons, Templeman and Watson were also members of the Club. Nichols, 

 Lit. Anecd. iii. 258. 



3 The story is told that Grenville once sent for Dr. Fothergill to attend him, 

 and after an animated discussion on American affairs, in which he learned 

 Fothergill's views, put five guineas into his hand with the words : " Really, 

 doctor, I am so much better that I don't want you to prescribe for me." 

 Jeaffreson, Book about Doctors, p. 132. 



