"We are humbly of opinion that the tendency of said paper, is
to mock religion and bring it into contempt; that the Holy
Scriptures are therein profanely abused; that the revered and
faithful ministers of the Gospel are ignominiously reflected
on; and that His Majesty's government is affronted; and the
peace and good order of His Majesty's subjects of this
province disturbed by this said Courant."

The committee, therefore, proposed that James Franklin should be
strictly forbidden to print or publish the Courant, or any other paper
of the like nature, unless it were supervised by the secretary of the
province.

James Franklin and his friends, after this decision, met in the office
of the Courant, and adroitly decided to evade the mandate by canceling
the indentures of apprenticeship of Benjamin, and constituting him the
editor and publisher of the journal. This precocious lad prepared his
inaugural. It contained the following sentiments:

"Long has the press groaned in bringing forth a hateful brood
of pamphlets, malicious scribbles, and billingsgate ribaldry.
No generous and impartial person then can blame the present
undertaking which is designed purely for the diversion and
merriment of the reader. Pieces of pleasantry and mirth have
a secret charm in them to allay the heats and tumults of our
spirits, and to make a man forget his restless resentment.
The main design of this weekly paper will be to entertain the
town with the most comical and diverting incidents of human
life, which in so large a place as Boston will not fail of a
universal exemplification. Nor shall we be wanting to fill up
these papers with a grateful interspersion of more serious
morals which may be drawn from the most ludicrous and odd
parts of life."

It cannot be denied that Franklin aimed his keen shafts at many of the
best of men who were consecrating all their energies to the promotion
of the physical, moral, and religious welfare of their fellow
creatures. He had a keen eye to search out their frailties; and though
he seldom if ever, dipped his pen in gall, he did at times succeed in
making them the song of the drunkard, and in turning against them the
derision of all the lewd fellows of the baser sort.

Benjamin, elated by flattery and success, admits that at seventeen
years of age he became in his treatment of his brother "saucy and