Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/277

267 commiſſioned to be, with Moſes, the firſt eſtabliſhed miniſtry of the new government.

One would have thought, that the appointment of men who had diſtinguiſhed themſelves in procuring the liberty of their nation, and had hazarded their lives in openly oppoſing the will of a powerful monarch who would have retained that nation in ſlavery, might have been an appointment acceptable to a grateful people; and that a conſtitution, framed for them by the Deity himſelf, might on that account have been ſecure of an univerſal welcome reception. Yet there were, in every one of the thirteen tribes, ſome diſcontented, reſtleſs ſpirits, who were continually exciting them to reject the propoſed new government, and this from various motives.

Many ſtill retained an affection for Egypt, the land of their nativity, and theſe, whenever they felt any inconvenience or hardſhip, though the natural and unavoidable effect of their change of ſituation, exclaimed againſt their leaders as the authors of their trouble; and were not only for returning into Egypt, but for ſtoning their deliverers. Thoſe inclined to idolatry were diſpleaſed that their golden calf was deſtroyed. Many, of the chiefs thought the new conſtitution might be injurious to their particular intereſts, that the profitable places would be engroſſed by the families and friends of Moſes and Aaron, and others equally well-born excluded .—In Joſephus, and the Talmud, we learn ſome particulars, not ſo fully narrated in the ſcripture. We are there