am sent to negotiate; and that opinion appears to give great pleasure, if I can judge by the extreme civilities I meet with from numbers of the principal people, who have done me the honor to visit me."

*

He stayed eight days at Nantes, and then set off for Paris, and reached that city on the 21st of December. He found Mr. Deane there, and Mr. Lee joined them the next day, so that the commissioners were prepared to enter immediately upon their official duties. Shortly afterwards Dr. Franklin removed to Passy, a pleasant village near Paris, and took lodgings in a commodious house belonging to M. Leray de Chaumont, a zealous friend to the American cause. He remained at that place during the whole of his residence in France.

The intelligence of Franklin's arrival at Paris was immediately published and circulated throughout Europe. His brilliant discoveries in electricity, thirty years before, had made him known as a philosopher wherever science was studied or genius respected. His writings on this subject had already been translated into many languages; and also his Poor Richard, and some other miscellaneous pieces, clothed in a style of surpassing simplicity and precision, and abounding in sagacious maxims relating to human affairs and the springs of human action, which are almost without a

* Madame du Deffand says, in a letter dated on the 18th of December; "The object of Dr. Franklin's visit is still problematical; and what is the most singular of all is, that no one can tell whether he is actually in Paris or not. For three or four days it has been said in the morning that he had arrived, and in the evening that he had not yet come." Again, on the 22d, she writes; “Dr. Franklin arrived in town yesterday, at two o'clock in the afternoon; he slept the night before at Versailles. He was accompanied by two of his grandsons, one seven years old, the other seventeen, and by his friend, M. Penet. He has taken lodgings in the Rue de l'Université.". Lettres de la Marquise du Deffund à Horace Walpole, Tom. III. p. 343.

parallel in any other writer. * The history of his recent transactions in England, his bold and uncompromising defence of his country's rights, his examination before Parliament, and the abuse he had received from the ministers, were known everywhere, and had added to the fame of a philosopher and philanthropist that of a statesman and patriot. A French historian, of the first celebrity, speaks of him as follows;

"By the effect which Franklin produced in France, one might say that he fulfilled his mission, not with a court, but with a free people. Diplomatic etiquette did not permit him often to hold interviews with the ministers, but he associated with all the distinguished personages, who directed public opinion. Men imagined they saw in him a sage of antiquity, come back to give austere lessons and generous examples to the moderns. They personified in him the republic, of which he was the representative and the legislator. They regarded his virtues as those of his countrymen, and even judged of their physiognomy by the imposing and serene traits of his own. Happy was he, who could gain admittance to see him in the house which he occupied at Passy. This venerable old man, it was said, joined to the demeanor of Phocion the spirit of Socrates. Courtiers were struck with his native dignity, and discovered in him the profound statesman. Young officers, impatient to signalize themselves in another hemisphere, came to interrogate him respecting the military condition of the Americans; and, when

*There are three separate translations of Poor Richard in the French language; one by Dubourg, another by Quétant, and a third by Castéra. Many editions have been printed, and some of them in a beautiful style of typography. It has also been translated into modern Greek; and a new translation has been recently made from the French into Spanish by Mangino, and published, with a selection from Franklin's miscellaneous writings, in the same language.

he spoke to them with deep concern and a manly frankness of the recent defeats, which had put his country in jeopardy, this only excited in them a more ardent desire to join and assist the republican soldiers. "After this picture, it would be useless to trace the history of Franklin's negotiations with the court of France. His virtues and his renown negotiated for him; and, before the second year of his mission had expired, no one conceived it possible to refuse fleets and an army to the compatriots of Franklin."*

The commissioners were furnished by Congress, in the first place, with the plan of a treaty of commerce, which they were to propose to the French government. They were likewise instructed to procure from that court, at the expense of the United States, eight line-of-battle ships, well manned and fitted for service; to borrow money; to procure and forward military

* Histoire de France, par CHARLES LACRETELLE, Tom. V. p. 92. - The same historian adds, that portraits of Franklin were everywhere to be seen, with the sublime inscription, which was first applied to him by Turgot; "Eripuit cælo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis."

A variety of medallions were likewise made, on which his head was represented, of various sizes, suitable to be set in the lids of snuffboxes, or to be worn in rings; and vast numbers were sold; as well as numerous copies of pictures, busts, and prints, in which the artists vied with each other to attain beauty of execution and accuracy of resemblance. While he resided in England, he wore a wig, according to the fashion of the times, of somewhat formidable dimensions. His head is thus covered in the portraits by Chamberlin and Martin, both of which are deemed good likenesses. In another picture of him, by West, painted in England, which is now in the possession of Mr. Edward D. Ingraham, of Philadelphia, the wig is likewise retained. After he went to France he laid aside this appendage, and supplied its place with a fur cap, which is seen in some of the engravings. But at length this was dispensed with. The portrait by Duplessis is considered the best that was taken in France, and in this he appears with his own hair, thin at the top, but flowing down the sides of his head and neck nearly to the shoulders. During the latter years of his life he seldom went abroad without spectacles, fitted by an invention of his own, for rendering objects distinctly visible at different distances from the eye.

VOL. I.

JJ

supplies; and to fit out armed vessels under the flag of the United States, provided the French court should not disapprove this measure. They were, moreover, authorized to ascertain the views of other European powers, through their ambassadors in France, and to endeavour to obtain from them a recognition of the independence and sovereignty of the United States; and to enter into treaties of amity and commerce with such powers, if opportunities should present themselves. It was expected, that remittances would be made to them from time to time, in American produce, to meet their expenses and pecuniary engagements.

He

The Count de Vergennes was the minister of foreign affairs in the French cabinet, and from first to last the principal mover in what related to the American war. On the 28th of December, he admitted the commissioners to an audience at Versailles. received them with marked civility, and conversed with them freely. They laid before him their commission and the plan of a treaty. He assured them, that they might depend on the protection of the court while they were in France; that due attention would be given to what they had offered; and that all the facilities would be granted to American commerce and navigation in French ports, which were compatible with the treaties existing between France and Great Britain. He requested them to draw up a memoir, containing an account of the situation of affairs in the United States. This was presented a few days afterwards, with the part of their instructions relating to ships of war. No direct answer was returned, the French government not being yet prepared openly to espouse the cause of the Americans, which would necessarily bring on a war with England. By the advice of Count de Vergennes, they had an interview

memorials to his concert with that

with Count d'Aranda, the Spanish ambassador, who promised to forward copies of their court, which he said would act in of France.

Notwithstanding this reserve, the court of France had resolved to assist the Americans. A million of livres had already been secretly advanced to Beaumarchais for this purpose. Munitions of war to a large amount were purchased by him, in part with this money, and in part with such other means as he could command. By an arrangement with Mr. Deane, he shipped these articles to the United States, and Congress was to pay for them by remitting tobacco and other American produce. Before the commissioners arrived, Mr. Deane had procured, on these conditions, thirty thousand fusils, two hundred pieces of brass cannon, thirty mortars, four thousand tents, clothing for thirty thousand men, and two hundred tons of gunpowder. They were shipped in different vessels, the most of which arrived safely in the United States.

The French government did not grant the ships of war requested by Congress, but the commissioners were informed, through a private channel, that they would receive two millions of livres in quarterly payments, to be expended for the use of the United States. At first it was intimated to them, that this money was a loan from generous individuals, who wished well to the Americans in their struggle for freedom, and that it was not expected to be repaid till after the peace. In fact, however, it was drawn from the King's treasury, and the payments of half a million quarterly were promptly made. The commissioners likewise entered into a contract with the Farmers-General, by which it was agreed to furnish them with five thousand hogsheads of tobacco at a stipulated