said, 'I'll be hanged if
this is not some of your American jokes upon us.' The reading went on,
and ended with abundance of laughing, and a general verdict that it was
a fair hit."

After the Privy Council outrage there was very little for Franklin to
do. Lord Chatham consulted with him before introducing in Parliament a
liberal bill for conciliating the colonies, and Franklin himself was
present in the House of Lords when the old statesman, despite the
protests of his gout, plead for fairer measures. It may very well be
that if these troubles had occurred in Chatham's vigorous days he might
have been able to preserve the integrity of the empire. But now he was
crippled by the gout and debarred from active life; and in the
interesting "Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout" the philosopher
might have retorted upon that exacting lady the mischief she had done
his people by laming Pitt. Again Franklin had to stand the bitter
denunciation of the Tories, while Lord Sandwich held him up as "one of
the bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country had ever
known;" but he also had the satisfaction of hearing a noble eulogy of
his character pronounced by the great Chatham.

Then, after a good deal of secret negotiation with Lord Howe, Franklin
reluctantly abandoned the situation and turned homeward. His last day
in London was passed with Dr. Priestley, who has left an interesting
record of their conversation. He says of Franklin that "the unity of
the British empire in all its parts was a favorite idea of his. He used
to compare it to a beautiful china vase, which, if ever broken, could
never be put together again; and so great an admirer was he of the
British constitution that he said he saw no inconvenience from its
being extended over a great part of the globe. With these sentiments he
left England."

VI

MEMBER OF CONGRESS AND ENVOY TO FRANCE

Franklin reached Philadelphia May 5, 1775; and what a home-coming it
was! His wife had died, and he was now to live with his daughter Mrs.
Bache. The battle of Lexington had been fought while he was at sea, and
the whole country was in a ferment of excitement. It was in regard to
this battle, it may be remembered, that he uttered one of his famous
witticisms. To a critic who accused the Americans of cowardice for
firing from behind stone walls, he replied: "I beg to inquire if those
same walls had not two sides to them?"

He received the most honorable welcome