Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/445

Rh vided for in the next bill prepared by the House for raising money to defray the public debt." But Franklin writes his nephew, Jonathan Williams, " The merchants here in two hours subscribed eleven hundred pounds to be lent the public for the charges of my voyage. I shall take with me but a part of it, five hundred pounds sterling." 6 The Protest was not received by the House, and found no entry in the Minutes, and its signers proceeded to publish it. 7 This called out, two days before his sailing, his Remarks on a late Protest against the appointment of Mr. Franklin as agent for the Province of Pennsylvania, one of his ablest and most caustic papers, as the structure of the Protest and its charges afforded him some strong points for his criticism and invective. One of the opening paragraphs has a personal reference in it which should bear quotation in this connection. Another of your reasons is that I am, as you are informed, very unfavorably thought of by several of his Majesty' s ministers . I apprehend, Gentlemen that your informer is mistaken . He indeed has taken great pains to give unfavorable impressions of me, and perhaps may flatter himself that it is impossible so much true industry should be totally without effect. His long success in maiming or murdering all the reputations that stand in his way (which has been the dear delight and constant employment of his life) may likewise have given him some just ground for confidence, that he has, as they call it, done for me, among the rest. But, as I said before, I believe he is mistaken. 8 He evidently had no doubt as to the authorship of the Protest. His concluding paragraph has a hidden prophecy of his long absence, and is pathetic in its expression, as more than ten years were passed in the pursuance of this vexatious mission, and his return was coincident with the new birth of his country, for 6 3 November, 1764. Bigelow iii. 256. 7 " I would observe that this mode of protesting by the minority, with a string of reasons against the proceedings of the majority of the House of Assembly, is quite new among us ; the present is the second we have had of the kind, and both within a few months. It is unknown to the practice of the House of Commons, or of any House of Representatives in America that I ever heard of, and seems an affected imitation of the Lords in Parliament, which can by no means become Assembly- men of America. ' r Franklin in his Remarks. Bigelow iii. 357. 8 Bigelow iii. 358.