85 



The Committee are aware that Franklin, in 1771, 

 fixes the duration of his Junto at about 40 years. 

 His words are, alluding to William Coleman "Our 

 friendship continued without interruption to his 

 death, upwards of forty years; and the Club con- 

 tinued almost as long.' 7 Again he says, in a letter 

 to Hugh Koberts, dated July 7th, 1765, "It wants 

 but about two years of forty since it was established. ' ' 

 Thus the Junto lasted almost as long as a friendship 

 that had continued upwards of forty years ; and as 

 it began in 1727, it may be said, so far as this evi- 

 dence goes, to have ceased to exist about the year 

 1767. Now, if this reasoning be admitted, it is fatal 

 to the supposition that the Franklin-Junto was one 

 of the parents of our Society; for the union took 

 place on the 2nd of January, 1769. The Committee, 

 however, do not lay much stress upon this reasoning; 

 as Franklin, writing his Life in England in 1771, 

 may not have been entirely accurate in dates. They 

 rely more upon the fact that Franklin, in speaking 

 of the duration of the Junto, never refers to its 

 ceasing to exist, in consequence of its union with the 

 Philosophical Society, a statement he would hardly 

 have omitted to make in his Autobiography, if it had 

 been a fact. 



Upon the whole, the Committee incline to the 

 opinion that the Franklin- Junto ceased to exist as 

 an organized club of twelve about the year 1767; 

 but continued to meet irregularly, without being kept 

 up in number, for many years afterwards. 



