160 ADDENDUM. 



song are not heard of in Chas. Thomson's Society 

 except at their Annual Supper. Again Franklin 

 speaks of it's age. Now forty years existence is not 

 remarkable for a literary society but for a Club of 

 friends. Hence his sollicitude to maintain it hence 

 his affectionate fondness for it. A mere debating 

 Club which had passed into the hands of a younger 

 set of men could hardly have been an object of much 

 interest to him. 



D r . Smith might very well be in error. He came into 

 the Province in 1755, was not a member of the Amer- 

 ican Society and had little or no social connexion with 

 it's members. He wrote his Eulogy on Franklin in 

 1790 and, if he consulted the records of the Society, 

 we have no reason to think he saw any Minutes earlier 

 than 1758, from which he might have risen with as 

 little certainty as we have. But Charles Thomson 

 could not have been mistaken in 1768 himself the 

 most active member of the American Society, he 

 would not, I think, have failed to remind Franklin 

 that he had been an old member the founder of the 

 Club, when he sollicited his countenance and patronage 



I write this to you that you may answer my objec- 

 tions and submit your reply with my letter to the 

 Committee. If I have any interest in the matter it 

 is to give all the importance of Franklin's name to 

 the American Society of which my Grandfather, 

 Thomas Fisher, was a member; but after the exami- 

 nation of the Eecords I made at Mr. Spark's request 



