LAST ROYAL GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 45 



again to show his face in society, this man of letters, 

 forsooth ! " a man of three letters." At this obvious 

 allusion to the old Roman slang expression preserved 

 in Plautus, where "a man of three letters" is f-u-r, a 

 thief, there were loud cries of " Hear, hear ! " Of the 

 members of government present, Lord North alone 

 preserved his unfailing decorum ; the others laughed 

 and applauded, while Franklin stood as unmoved as 

 the moon at the baying of dogs. His conduct had, 

 perhaps, been hardly defensible, and it had probably 

 worked more harm than good, but his conscience was 

 certainly quite clear ; and he could not but despise the 

 snarls of such a cur as Wedderburn, whom the king, 

 while fain to use him as a tool, felt free to call the big- 

 gest knave in the realm. Ralph Izard, the hot-blooded 

 South Carolinian, who listened to the insulting speech, 

 afterward declared that if it had been aimed at him, 

 he would have answered on the spot with a challenge. 

 Lord Shelburne wrote to Lord Chatham that the in- 

 decency of the affair was such as would have disgraced 

 an ordinary election contest. Before the meeting was 

 adjourned, Wedderburn stepped up to say good-morn- 

 ing to Dr. Priestley ; but the great man of science, 

 kindest and most gentle of mortals, indignantly turned 

 his back. Ah, quoth Immanuel Kant, in his study at 

 distant Konigsberg, as he smoked his evening pipe 

 and listened to the story, we have heard before how 

 Prometheus, who brought fire from heaven, was teased 

 by an unclean bird. The affair ended as might have 

 been foreseen. The Massachusetts petition was not 

 simply rejected, but condemned as scandalous ; and 

 next day Franklin was dismissed from his office of 

 postmaster-general for America. 



