Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/94

84 into ridicule, was treated with contempt. He began, notwithſtanding, his paper; and after continuing it for nine months having at moſt not more than ninety ſubſcribers, he offered it me for a mere trifle. I had for ſome time been ready for ſuch an engagement; I therefore inſtantly took it upon myſelf, and in a few years it proved extremely profitable to me.

I perceive that I am apt to ſpeak in the firſt perſon, though our partnerſhip ſtill continued. It is, perhaps, becauſe, in fact, the whole buſineſs devolved upon me. Meredith was no compoſitor, and but an indifferent preſſman; and it was rarely that he abſtained from hard drinking. My friends were ſorry to ſee me connected with him; but I contrived to derive from it the utmoſt advantage the caſe admitted. Our firſt number produced no other effect than any other paper which had appeared in the province, as to type and printing; but ſome remarks, in my peculiar ſtyle of writing, upon the diſpute which then prevailed between governor Burnet and the MassachusettsMaſſachuſett [sic] aſſembly, ſtruck ſome perſons as above mediocrity, cauſed the paper and its editors to be talked of, and in a few weeks induced them to become our ſubſcribers. Many others followed their example; and our ſubſcription continued to increaſe. This was one of the firſt good effects of the pains I had taken to learn to put my ideas on paper. I derived this farther advantage from it, that the leading men of the place, ſeeing in the author of this publication a man ſo well able to uſe his pen, thought it right to patroniſe and encourage me.

The votes, laws, and other public pieces, were printed by Bradford. An addreſs of the houſe of aſſembly to the governor had been executed by him in a very coarſe and incorrect manner.