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 -1754] Schemes of consolidation. 69 1744 containing the same prohibition. Since the belief in the enriching power of a paper currency is a delusion deeply rooted in the human mind, we may be sure that the action of the Crown and of Parliament was looked upon as a real and serious grievance. The ill-advised attempt of James II to consolidate the colonies north of the Hudson into a single province bore witness to the necessity of some form of administrative union. There is hardly a bundle of colonial papers from 1700 to 1750 which does not contain some document insisting on that necessity. The one redeeming feature of Leisler's career was that he convened a meeting of deputies from the northern colonies to make arrangements for an invasion of Canada. The convention met at New York in May, 1690. Unhappily Leisler's arrogant and tactless disposition prevented any practical result. In 1751 the governor of New York invited representatives of all the thirteen colonies to confer with the Iroquois confederacy about an alliance ; but nothing was aimed at in the nature of permanent union. In 1754 William Shirley, one of the most vigorous of colonial governors, obtained the permission of the British government to summon a conven- tion of colonial representatives at Albany. A scheme for a federal union was then laid before them, drawn up by perhaps the ablest and most statesmanlike man who had as yet borne any part in colonial affairs, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin's scheme for colonial union was approved of by the Convention. He proposed a council elected by the colonies, with a president appointed by the Crown. The difficulty of proportioning representation to the population of the various colonies and yet pre- venting the smaller colonies from being virtually annihilated was surmounted, not, as in the later Federal Constitution, by establishing two chambers, but by varying the number of representatives assigned to the different colonies, and giving to none less than two or more than seven. The president was to have a veto, the Crown a further veto. Military appointments were to be made by the president and approved by the council, civil appointments vice versa. The administrative functions of the council were virtually limited to three subjects defensive war, Indian trade, and the distribution of unoccupied lands. The weak point of the system was that it provided no machinery whereby the council could exercise any authority over individual citizens, or could even enforce its decision on a refractory province. The scheme was disapproved by many of the colonists as giving too much power to the Crown. It was rejected by the home government as giving too much independence to the colonies. In this Franklin ingeniously found a proof that he had hit upon the happy mean.