AS Statesman and Diplomatist 75 



has been such a vast benefit to Philadelphia, and the 

 mother and model of many similar libraries througout 

 the land; the printing and publishing of many valuable 

 works, of all of which we may be sure he mastered the 

 contents, in that hour or two of every day stolen for 

 study, — during which he also learned French, Italian 

 and Spanish; his constant and increasing correspondence 

 with men of light and learning everywhere; the found- 

 ing of this The American Philosophical Society; his 

 achievements in electricity; the founding of the school 

 that grew to be the University of Pennsylvania; his 

 hearty support of the project for the Pennsylvania Hos- 

 pital; the paving and lighting of the city, and his 

 efforts to place the Province in a condition to defend 

 itself; his service as a member of the City Council and 

 as alderman, as clerk and member of the Assembly and 

 as Public Printer, and finally his service as postmaster 

 of Philadelphia and Deputy Postmaster-General of all 

 the colonies and his long controversy and struggle with 

 the proprietors, — these were the steady and gradual 

 marches by which, by the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, he had grown to be not only the best known man 

 in America, but the best qualified for every form of 

 public service. In him were concentrated all the best 

 forms of practical politics. He was never anything if 

 not practical. 



And now thus splendidly qualified and equipped for 



