xxvi FURTHER EFFORTS BY THE FRIENDS 331 



Lord Chatham was still busy, and was now drafting a 

 plan of his own for healing the differences. He sought 

 Franklin's advice, but was too eloquent to be a good 

 listener. Chatham's Provisional Act for Settling the 

 Troubles in America was introduced in the Lords on 

 February i ; Dartmouth pleaded for its consideration, 

 and North seemed ready to follow ; but Sandwich 

 denounced it ; and turning at the same time to fix his 

 eye on Franklin, who was present leaning over the bar, 

 declared that the Bill was the work of a bitter and mis- 

 chievous enemy of this country. His savage attack 

 brought up Chatham with a generous encomium of the 

 American, as " an honour, not to the English nation only, 

 but to human nature." The Bill was rejected, and the 

 same fate was to meet Burke's similar resolutions a 

 little later. 



Franklin now despaired of parliament. The friends 

 nevertheless persevered, meeting again at Fothergill's 

 house on the 4th. A paper of " Remarks on Hints " 

 (Appendix A, No. III.) seems to have been considered at 

 this interview ; it may have been notes of a conversation 

 with Hyde. In this paper most of the articles were 

 agreed to. Those, however, relating to the Navigation 

 Acts and the Admiralty Courts met with objection ; some 

 little relaxation might be obtained as to the restraint of 

 commerce, and a concession by the colonists of a small 

 tax in peace was urged. Franklin's version of the confer- 

 ence is less hopeful : the penal acts were to be repealed 

 in small part only ; and no concession made as to the 

 entry of troops or the repayment of tea duties. But if 

 the paper indicated Hyde's views, the ministry as a whole 

 were still less favourably inclined. Some attempts were 

 now made . by the triumvirate to amend the articles 

 objected to. Fothergill expatiated on the miseries of a 

 conflict, and said that a bad peace was preferable to a 

 most successful war, and that in a few years America 

 would be able to make her own terms. Barclay averred 

 that much lay in Franklin's power, but when (primed 

 perhaps by ministers) he went on to hint that Franklin 



