Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/146

136 They would not adopt them; the governor was obſtinate, and the bill was loſt.

Theſe, and various other circumſtances, encreaſed the uneaſineſs which ſubſiſted between the proprietaries and the aſſembly, to ſuch a degree, that, in 1764, a petition to the king was agreed to by the houſe, praying an alteration from a proprietary to a regal government. Great oppoſition was made to this meaſure, not only in the houſe, but in the public prints. A ſpeech of Mr. Dickenſon, on the ſubject, was publiſhed, with a preface by Dr. Smith, in which great pains were taken to ſhew the impropriety and impolicy of this proceeding. A ſpeech of Mr. Galloway, in reply to Mr. Dickenſon, was publiſhed, accompanied with a preface by Dr. Franklin; in which he ably oppoſed the principles laid down in the preface to Mr Dickenſon's ſpeech. This application to the throne produced no effect. The proprietary government was ſtill continued.

At the election for a new aſſembly, in the fall of 1764, the friends of the proprietaries made great exertions to exclude thoſe of the adverſe party; and they obtained a ſmall majority in the city of Philadelphia. Franklin now loſt his ſeat in the houſe, which he had held for fourteen years. On the meeting of the aſſembly, it appeared that there was ſtill a decided majority of Franklin's friends. He was immediately appointed provincial agent, to the great chagrin of his enemies, who made a ſolemn proteſt againſt his appointment; which was refuſed admiſſion upon the minutes, as being unprecedented. It was, however, publiſhed in the papers, and produced a ſpirited reply from him, juſt before his departure for England.

The diſturbances produced in America by Mr. Grenville's ſtamp-act, and the oppoſition made to