On the 28th of Fanuary was publifoed, the SupPLEMENTARY NuMBER to the Fourteenth Volume 
of the MonTaty Macazine, containing—A comprebenfive Retrofpec? of the Progre/s sf 
British LirERATUKE during the laft fix Months—and fimilar Retrofpetis of GERMAN, 
FRENCH, SPANISH, amd AMERICAN LITERATURE 5 with INDEXES, TITLE, &c. 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
No. 97.] FEBRUARY 1, 1803. \[No. 3, of Vor. 15. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
: pamphlet, calculated to fhew the injuftice 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. is apts of a war with the Colonies 
SIR, previous to the meeting of a new Parlia- 
HAVE juit read in the Monthly Re- ment. As Ithen lived at Leeds, he cor- 
view, vol. 36, p. 357 that the late Mr. rected the pre!s himfelf; and, to a paflage 
Pennant faid of Dr. Franklin, that, “ liv- in which I lamented the attempt to efta- 
ing under the protection of our mild Go-  blifh arbitrary power in fo large a part of 
vernment, he was fecretly playing the in- ‘the Britifh Empire, he added the follow- 
cendiary, and too fuccefsfully inflaming ing claufe, ** To the imminent hazard of 
the minds of our fellow-fubjects in Ame- our moft valuable commerce, and of that 
rica, till that great explofion happened, national ftrength, fecurity, and felicity, 
which for ever difunited us from our once which depend os union and on liberty.” 
happy colonies.”” . ‘ The unity of the Britifh Empire in all 
As it is in my power, as faras mytefi- its parts was a favourite idea of his. He 
mony will be regarded, to refute this ufed to compare it to a beautiful China 
charge, I think it due to our friendfhip to vafe, which, if once broken, could never 
doit. It is probable that no perfon now be put together again: and fo great an 
living was better acquainted with Dr. admirer was he at that time of the Britifh 
Franklin and his fentiments on all fyb- Conftitution, that he faid he ‘aw no in- 
jects of importance, thanmyfelf, for feve- convenience from its being extended over 
ral years before the American war. I, a great part of the. globe. With thefe 
I think I knew him as well asone mancan. fentiments-he left England ; but when, 
generally know another. Atthat time I on his arrival in America, he found the 
{pent the winters in London, inthe family wat begun, and_ that there was no reced- 
of the Marquis of Lanfdown, and few ing, no man entered more warmly into 
days paffed without my feeing more or lefs the interefts of what he then confidered as 
of Dr. Franklin ; and the latt day that he zs country, in oppofition to that of Great 
paffed in England, having given out that Britain. Tiree of his letters to me, one 
he fhould depart the day before, we fpent written immediately on his landing, and 
together, without any interruption, from publifhed in the collection of his Méi/cella- 
morning till night. neous Works, p. 365, 552, and 555, will 
Now he was fo far from withing for a_ prove this. 
rupture with the Colonies, that hedid more | By many perfons Dr. Franklin is confi. 
than moft men would have done to pre- dered as having been a cold-hearted man, 
Vent it. His conftant advice to his coun- fo callous to every feeling of humanity, 
trymen, he always faid, was “to bear that the profpect of all’ the horrors of a 
every thing from England, however un- civil war could not affect him. This was 
juft 5” faying, that ‘* it could not laft far from being the cafe. A great part of 
long, as they would foon outgrow all their the day above-mentioned that we {pent to- 
hardthips.”” On this account Dr. Price, gether, he was looking over a number of 
who then correfponded with fome of the American newfpapers, directing me what 
principal perions in America, faid, he be- to extraét from them for the Englifh ones ; 
gan to be very unpopular there. He al- and, in reading them, he was frequently 
ways faid, “If there muft be a war, it not ableto proceed for the tears literally 
will be a war of ten years, and I fhall not running down his cheeks. To ftrangers 
live to fee the end of it.” This I have he was cold and referved ; but where he 
heard him fay many times. was intimate, no man indulged to more 
It was at his requeft, enforced by that of pleafantry and good-humour. By this he 
Dr. Fothergil, that I wrote an anonymous was thedebght of a club, to which heals 
‘Monruty Mac. No. 97. . Ey ied ludes 
