Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/151

141 mother country, a repetition of ill treatment muſt ultimately alienate their affections. They liſtened not to his advice. They blindly perſevered in their own ſchemes, and left to the coloniſts no alternative, but oppoſition or unconditional ſubmiſſion. The latter accorded not with the principles of freedom, which they had been taught to revere. To the former they were compelled, though reluctantly, to have recourſe. Dr. Franklin, finding all efforts to reſtore harmony between Great-Britain and her colonies uſeleſs, returned to America in the year 1775; juſt after the commencement of hoſtilities. The day after his return he was elected by the legiſlature of Pennſylvania a delegate, to congreſs. Not long after his election a committee was appointed, conſiſting of Mr. Lynch, Mr. Harriſon, and himſelf, to viſit the camp at Cambridge, and, in conjunction with the commander in chief, to endeavour to convince the troops, whoſe term of enliſtment was about to expire, of the neceſſity of their continuing in the field, and perſevering in the cauſe of their country.

In the fall of the fame year he viſited Canada, to endeavour to unite them in the common cauſe of liberty; but they could not be prevailed upon to oppoſe the meaſures of the Britiſh government. M. Le Roy, in a letter annexed to Abbé Fauchet's eulogium of Dr. Franklin, ſtates that the ill ſucceſs of this negotiationnegociation [sic] was occaſioned, in a great degree, by religious animoſities, which ſubſiſted between the Canadians and their neighbours, ſome of whom had at different times burnt their chapels.

When Lord Howe came to America, in 1776, veſted with power to treat with the coloniſts, a correſpondence took place between him and Dr. Franklin, on the ſubject of a reconciliation.