[6] Notably in a pamphlet comparing the Jews and the Anti-Federalists.
[7] William Franklin served on the Canadian frontier with Pennsylvania troops, becoming captain in 1750; was in the post-office in 1754-1756; went to England with his father in 1758; was admitted to legal practice in 1758; in 1763, recommended by Lord Fairfax, became governor of New Jersey; he left the Whig for the Tory party; and in the War of Independence was a faithful loyalist, much to the pain and regret of his father, who, however, was reconciled to him in part in 1784. He was held as a prisoner from 1776 until exchanged in 1778; and lived four years in New York, and during the remainder of his life in England with an annual pension of £800 from the crown.
[8] For the prevention of counterfeiting continental paper money Franklin long afterwards suggested the use on the different denominations of different leaves, having noted the infinite variety of leaf venation.
[9] “Seventy-five editions of it have been printed in English, fifty-six in French, eleven in German and nine in Italian. It has been translated into Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, modern Greek and phonetic writing. It has been printed at least four hundred times, and is to-day as popular as ever.”—P. L. Ford, in The Many-Sided Franklin (1899).
[10] Both Swift and Franklin made sport of the typical astrologer almanack-maker.
[11] Another hoax was Franklin’s parable against religious persecution thrown into Scriptural form and quoted by him as the fifty-first chapter of Genesis. In a paper on a “Proposed New Version of the Bible” he paraphrased a few verses of the first chapter of Job, making them a satiric attack on royal government; but the version may well rank with these hoaxes, and even modern writers have been taken in by it, regarding it as a serious proposal for a “modernized” version and decrying it as poor taste. Matthew Arnold, for example, declared this an instance in which Franklin was lacking in his “imperturbable common sense”; and J. B. McMaster, though devoting several pages to its discussion, very ingenuously declares it “beneath criticism.”
[12] Malthus quoted Franklin in his first edition, but it was not until the second that he introduced the theory of the “preventive check.” Franklin noted the phenomenon with disapproval in his advocacy of increased population; Malthus with approval in his search for means to decrease population.
[13] The title of philosopher as used in Franklin’s lifetime referred neither in England nor in France to him as author of moral maxims, but to him as a scientist—a “natural philosopher.”
FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN (1786-1847), English rear-admiral and explorer, was born at Spilsby, Lincolnshire, on the 16th of April 1786. His family was descended from a line of free-holders or “franklins” from whom some centuries earlier they had derived their surname; but the small family estate was sold by his father, who went into business. John, who was the fifth and youngest son and ninth child, was destined for the church. At the age of ten he was sent to school at St Ives, and soon afterwards was transferred to Louth grammar school, which he attended for two years. About this time his imagination was deeply impressed by a holiday walk of 12 m. which he made with a companion to look at the sea, and he determined to be a sailor. In the hope of dispelling this fancy his father sent him on a trial voyage to Lisbon in a merchantman; but it being found on his return that his wishes were unchanged he was entered as a midshipman on board the “Polyphemus,” and shortly afterwards took part in her in the hard-fought battle of Copenhagen (2nd of April 1801). Two months later he joined the “Investigator,” a discovery-ship commanded by his cousin Captain Matthew Flinders, and under the training of that able scientific officer was employed in the exploration and mapping of the coasts of Australia, where he acquired a correctness of astronomical observation and a skill in surveying which proved of eminent utility in his future career. He was on board the “Porpoise” when that ship and the “Cato” were wrecked (18th of August 1803) on a coral reef off the coast of Australia, and after this misfortune proceeded to China. Thence he obtained a passage to England in the “Earl Camden,” East Indiaman, commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir) Nathaniel Dance, and performed the duty of signal midshipman in the famous action of the 15th of February 1804 when Captain Dance repulsed a strong French squadron led by the redoubtable Admiral Linois. On reaching England he joined the “Bellerophon,” 74, and was in charge of the signals on board that ship during the battle of Trafalgar. Two years later he joined the “Bedford,” attaining the rank of lieutenant the year after, and served in her on the Brazil station (whither the “Bedford” went as part of the convoy which escorted the royal family of Portugal to Rio de Janeiro in 1808), in the blockade of Flushing, and finally in the disastrous expedition against New Orleans (1814), in which campaign he displayed such zeal and intelligence as to merit special mention in despatches.