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CC OE OOO EE  ——— 
2 Letter from Dr. Priefiley. 
tudes in one of the letters above referred 
to, called the Whig-Club, that met at the 
London Coffee-houfe, of which Dr. Price, 
Dr. Kippis, Mr. John Lee, and others of 
the fame ftamp, were members. 
Hoping that this vindication of Dr. 
Franklin will give -pleafure to many of 
your readers, I ihall proceed to relate {ome 
_ particulars relating to his behaviour, when 
Lord Loughborough, then Mr. Wedder- 
burn, pronounced his violent invective 
again him at the Privy Council, on his 
prefenting the complaints of the Province 
of Maffachufetts {1 think it was) againft 
their Governor. Some of the particulars 
may be thought amufing. 
On the morning of the day on which 
the caufe was to be heard, I met Mr. 
Burke in Parliament-ftreet, accompanied 
by Dr. Douglas, afterwards Bithop of 
Carlifie; and after introducing us to each 
other, asmen of letters, he afked me whi- 
ther I was going ; I faid, I could tell him 
whither [ wifbed to go. He then afking 
me where that was, I faid to the Privy 
Council, but that I was afraid I could not 
get admiffion. He then defired me to go 
along with him. Accordingly I did ; 
but when we got to the anti-room, we 
found it quite filled with perfons as defir- 
ous of getting admiffion asourfelves. See- 
ing this, I faid, we fhould never get 
through the crowd. He faid, “Give me 
your arm; and, locking it faft in his, he 
” foon made his way to the door of the Pri- 
vy Council. I then faid, Mr. Burke, you 
are an excellent leader ; he replied, “ I 
with other perfons thought fo too.” 
After waiting a fhort time, the door of 
the Privy Council opened, and we entered 
the Grft ; when Mr. Burke took his ftand 
behind the firft chair next to the Prefident, 
and I behind that the next to his. When 
the bufinefs was opened, it was fufficiently 
evident, from the fpeech of Mr. Wedder- 
butn, who was Counfel for the Governor, 
that the real object of the Court was to 
infait Dr: Franklin. All this time he 
cod in a corner of the room, notfar from 
me, without the leaft apparent emotion. 
Mr. Danning, who was the leading 
Ceunfel‘on the part of the Colony, was fo 
hoarfe that he could hardly make himfelf 
heard; and Mr. Lee, who was the fecond, 
fgoke but feebly in reply ; fo that Mr. 
' Wedderburn had a complete triumph.— 
At the fallies of his farcaftic wit, all the 
Members of the Council, the Prefident 
himfelf (Lord Gower) not excepted, fre- 
quently laughed outright. No perfon be- 
longing to the Council behaved with de- 
cent gravity, except Lord North, who, 
f Feb. 1, 
coming late, took his ftand bebipd the 
chair oppofite to me. 
When the bufinefs was over, Dr.Frank- 
lin, in going out, took me by the hand in 
a manner that indicated fome feeling. If 
foon followed him, and, going through the 
anti-room, faw Mr. Wedderburn there 
furrounded with a circle of his friends aod 
admirers. Being known to him, he ftep- 
ped forward as if to fpeak tome; but I 
turned afide, and made what hafte I could 
out of the place. 
The next morning I breakfafted with 
the Doétor, when he faid, ** He had ne- 
ver before been fo fenfible of the power of 
a good confcience ; for that if he had not. 
confidered the thing for which he had 
been fo much infulted, as one of the beft 
actions of his Hfe, and what he thould 
certainly do again in the fame circum- 
ftances, he could not have fupported it.” 
He was acculed of clandeftinely precuring 
certain letters, containimg complaints 
againit the Governor, and fending them 
to America, with a view to excite their 
animofity againft him, and thus te embroil’ 
the two countries. But he affured me, 
that he did not even know that fuch let- 
ters exifted, till they were brought to him 
as agent for the Colony, in order to be 
fent to his conitituents ; and the cover of 
the letters, on which the direction had 
been written, being loft, he only gueffed 
at the perfon to whom they were addrefled, 
by the contents. . 
That Dr. Franklin, notwithftanding he 
did not fhew it at the time, wasmuch ime 
prefled by the bufinefs of the Privy Coun- 
cil, appeared from this circumftance :— 
When he attended there, he was drefled 
ina fuit of Manchefter velvet ; and Silas 
Dean told me, that, when they met at Paris 
to fign the treaty between France and 
America, he purpofely put on that fuit. 
Hoping that th:* communication will be 
of fome fervice to the memory of Dr. 
Franklin, and gratify his friends, I am, 
Sir, your’s &c, J. PRiEsTLEY. 
Northumberland, Nov. 10, 1802. 
P.S. I formerly fent you an anecdote re- 
lating to Colonel Kirk, famous for his cru- 
elties in the reign of James IL. inferted in 
your Magazine for 1796, p. 544. This a 
writer, who figns A. C. p. 586 of the fame 
volume, fays, cannot be true, becaufe Mrse 
Rowe, .who is faid to have interceded for a 
criminal, was only eleven years old. As I 
have little doubt of the truth of the anecdote, 
I fuppofe the Mrs. Rowe referred to in it was 
Not the author, whofe maiden name was 
Singer, but the mother of her hufband, who, 
though no writer, may have been as refpeét« 
able a charater as her davghter-in-law. 
