AS Citizen and Philanthropist 45 



Treaty of Peace with Great Britain acknowledging that 

 Independence, and on the Constitution of the United 

 States. 



After all, what is it to be a good citizen? Without 

 entering into any analysis, always tiresome, may we not 

 assume that he who leaves the Commonwealth better 

 than he found it, be it even in so humble a degree as 

 the giving or the bequeathing of a good example, or 

 of an honest name, has earned the right to be entitled 

 a good citizen? Apply this test to Franklin and what 

 do we find? 



When Franklin was a very young man, the first civic 

 duty that he performed was the reformation of the 

 " night watch," which at that time would apparently 

 compare favourably with that of London, where it 

 had only very slightly improved since the days of Dog- 

 berry. The nightly tippling in taverns of the Phila- 

 delphia watchmen possibly surpassed that of their Lon- 

 don rivals, but their slumbers when on duty were no 

 less profound than those of their British cousins, and 

 what these slumbers were we may learn from Lord 

 Erskine. " A friend of mine," said Lord Erskine, on 

 one occasion, " was suffering from a continual wake- 

 fulness, and various methods were tried to send him to 

 sleep, but in vain. At last, his physicians resorted to 

 an experiment which succeeded perfectly; they dressed 



