ers
did not carry Bradford's _Mercury_, but explained that the
Postmaster-General, Colonel Spotswood, had forbidden it because Mr.
Bradford had refused to settle his accounts as late Postmaster at
Philadelphia.

Webbe had the last word in the controversy in a reply to this letter
(_Mercury_, December 18), in which he showed that Franklin had not
complied with the order of Colonel Spotswood until the personal letters
appeared in the _Mercury_.

In January of the following year Andrew Bradford published _The American
Magazine; or a Monthly View of the Political State of the British
Colonies_.

Three days later Franklin issued _The General Magazine and Historical
Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America_.

Three numbers only of Bradford's periodical appeared, and only one copy
is known to exist. It is lodged in the New York Historical Society.

Franklin's magazine contained parliamentary proceedings, extracts from
sermons, a bit of verse of more than Franklinian foulness, rhymes
eulogizing Gilbert Tennent, and a manual of arms. The title-page wore
the coronet and plumes of the Prince of Wales. Franklin ridiculed his
rival's magazine in doggerel verse; his own he made no mention of in
his autobiography. Its publication ceased in June, 1741.

_The General Magazine_ had given accounts of the excited discussion that
followed the visits paid to the colonies by George Whitefield. Tens of
thousands listened to the impressive sermons of the eloquent divine,
delivered from the balcony of the courthouse, which stood then on High
Street, in the centre of the city. There Franklin and Shippen and
Lawrence and Maddox might daily be seen, and there Benjamin Chew and
Tench Francis and John Ross might daily be heard. From that balcony John
Penn, freshly arrived from England, "showed himself to his anxious and
expectant people." One block east of the ancient courthouse was the
London Coffee-house, and there, too, were the publishing houses of those
days. Directly opposite to the Coffee-house, on the north side of High
Street, was the shop of the famous bookseller from London, James
Rivington, whose father in 1741 published Richardson's "Pamela," and
supplied six editions of it in a twelvemonth. Immediately to the west
was Robert Aitken, who published the _Pennsylvania Magazine_ and the
first English Bible in America. And hither, to the old Coffee-house, in
1754, William Bradford removed his famous hereditary press, and th