nd the young couple resided under the roof of
Mrs. Franklin for eight years. The husband, with an increasing family,
appealed to his illustrious father-in-law, to obtain for him a
governmental appointment. Franklin wrote to his daughter,

"I am of opinion, that almost any profession a man has been
educated in, is preferable to an office held at pleasure, as
rendering him more independent, more a free man, and less
subject to the caprices of his superiors. I think that in
keeping a store, if it be where you dwell, you can be
serviceable to him, as your mother was to me; for you are
not deficient in capacity, and I hope you are not too proud.
You might easily learn accounts; and you can copy letters,
or write them very well on occasion. By industry and
frugality you may get forward in the world, being both of
you very young. And then what we may leave you at our death,
will be a pretty addition, though of itself far from
sufficient to maintain and bring up a family."

Franklin gave his son-in-law about a thousand dollars to assist him in
the purchase of a stock of merchandise. The children, born to this
happy couple, were intelligent and beautiful, and they greatly
contributed to the happiness of their grandmother, who cherished them
with a grandmother's most tender love. In the year 1862, there were
one hundred and ten surviving descendants of Richard Bache and Sarah
Franklin. Ten of these were serving in the Union army perilling their
lives to maintain that national fabric, which their illustrious
ancestor had done so much to establish. Franklin was by no means a man
of one idea. His comprehensive mind seemed to grasp all questions of
statesmanship, of philanthropy, of philosophy.

During the ten years of his residence in England he visited the
hospitals, carefully examined their management, and transmitted to his
home the result of his observations. This was probably the origin of
the celebrity which the medical schools of Philadelphia have attained.
He visited the silk manufactories, and urged the adoption of that
branch of industry, as peculiarly adapted to our climate and people.
Ere long he had the pleasure of presenting to the queen a piece of
American silk, which she accepted and wore as a dress. As silk was an
article not produced in England, the government was not offended by
the introduction of that branch of industry. For Hartford college he