procured a telescope, which cost about five hundred dollars. This was,
in those days, an important event.

The renowned Captain Cook returned from his first voyage around the
world. The narrative of his adventures, in the discovery of new
islands, and new races of men, excited almost every mind in England
and America. Franklin was prominent in the movement, to raise
seventy-five thousand dollars, to fit out an expedition to send to
those benighted islanders the fowls, the quadrupeds and the seeds of
Europe. He wrote, in an admirable strain,

"Many voyages have been undertaken with views of profit or
of plunder, or to gratify resentment. But a voyage is now
proposed to visit a distant people on the other side of the
globe, not to cheat them, not to rob them: not to seize
their lands or to enslave their persons, but merely to do
them good, and make them, as far as in our power lies, to
live as comfortable as ourselves."

There can be no national prosperity without virtue. There can not be a
happy people who do not "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with
God." It was a noble enterprise to send to those naked savages corn
and hoes, with horses, pigs and poultry. But the Christian conscience
awoke to the conviction that something more than this was necessary.
They sent, to the dreary huts of the Pacific, ambassadors of the
religion of Jesus, to gather the children in schools, to establish the
sanctity of the family relation, and to proclaim to all, the glad
tidings of that divine Saviour, who has come to earth "to seek and to
save the lost."

CHAPTER XI.

_The Intolerance of King and Court._

Parties in England--Franklin the favorite of the
opposition--Plans of the Tories--Christian III--Letter of
Franklin--Dr. Priestley--Parisian courtesy--Louis XV--Visit
to Ireland--Attempted alteration of the Prayer Book--Letter
to his son--Astounding letters from America--Words of John
Adams--Petition of the Assembly--Violent conspiracy against
Franklin--His bearing in the court-room--Wedderburn's
infamous charges--Letter of Franklin--Bitter words of Dr.
Johnson--Morals of English lords--Commercial value of the
Colonies--Dangers threatening Franklin.

Wherever there is a government there must be an opposition. Those who
are out of office wish to eject those in office, that they may take
their places. There was a pretty strong part