t, they immediately passed a vote to send
him to England again, as a special messenger, to present the petition
which they had voted, to the king.

[Illustration: Church.]

The animosity and excitement which attended this contest was of course
extreme, and the character and the whole political course of Franklin,
were assailed by his enemies with all the violence and pertinacity that
characterize political contests of this kind at the present day. Franklin,
however, bore it all very good-naturedly. Just before he sailed, after he
had left Philadelphia to repair to the ship, which was lying some distance
down the river, he wrote a very affectionate letter to his daughter to bid
her farewell and give her his parting counsels. "You know," said he, in
this letter, "that I have many enemies, all, indeed, on the public account
(for I can not recollect that I have in a private capacity given just
cause of offense to any one whatever), yet they are enemies, and very
bitter ones; and you must expect their enmity will extend in some degree
to you, so that your slightest indiscretions will be magnified into
crimes, in order the more sensibly to wound and afflict me. It is,
therefore, the more necessary for you to be extremely circumspect in all
your behavior, that no advantage may be given to their malevolence." Then
followed various counsels relating to her duty to her mother, her general
deportment, her studies, and her obligations to the church. The church
with which Franklin was connected was of the Episcopal denomination, and
he took a great interest in its prosperity; though he manifested the same
liberality and public spirit here as in all the other relations that he
sustained. At one time, for example, it was proposed by certain members of
the congregation to form a sort of colony, and build a new church in
another place. A portion of the people opposed this plan as tending to
weaken the mother church, but Franklin favored it, thinking that in the
end the measure would have a contrary effect from the one they
apprehended. He compared it to the swarming of bees, by which, he said,
the comfort and prosperity of the old hive was increased, and a new and
flourishing colony established to keep the parent stock in countenance.
Very few persons, at that period, would have seen either the expediency or
the duty of pursuing such a course in respect to the colonization of a
portion of a church: though now su